


AWG Book 2: Grand Adventurers

by Varewulf



Series: Ainz Woolfe Gown [2]
Category: Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, a little more ambitious, did another one, stiil embarrassing, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-07 09:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14077452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Varewulf/pseuds/Varewulf
Summary: Here is book 2 of my self-insert version of Overlord.Made some more changes this time, like swapping Narberal for Lupusregina.More details in the foreword.Still a bit embarrassing to let you all see this.Edit: There we go, it's all up and posted.Edit 2: This has too many words compared to my draft though. Did I double-post something?Edit 3: Yeah, I guess that hiccup yesterday double-posted a chapter. Should be fixed now.





	1. Foreword

So I ended up going for the second book as well. This time I decided to be a little more ambitious, and actually change some significant things.

I swapped Narberal for Lupusregina, more or less guessing at her personality based on what I've read, and the Ple Ple Pleiades shorts. I went back and forth on this decision for a while, not making the decision until I'd written what came before it, and was forced to choose in order to keep going. It ended up being in part because I wanted to see more Lupusregina, and in part inspired by Ainz himself commenting in the book/show that maybe he should have taken her instead of Narberal. So I just went: Well, what if? Werewolf team!

I went with some different outcomes of a couple of things. Different name for Hamusuke, as that didn't feel like a name my character would pick, or even think of. 

And of course some major changes towards the end. Honestly just giving myself more stuff to keep track of if I keep going with this into further books.

I also couldn't focus only on Ainz this time. I felt I could get away with that in the first book, but in the second I felt I needed to give more context for who other characters were, and what they were doing. I still cut things, but I left less out than last time. That's going to be an increasing factor in future books, as Ainz takes on more of a background role in favour of showcasing the other characters. Which makes total sense for the series, to avoid things getting stale, and such. But it does mean I'm less sure about whether I want to do those books, as when I started I was mostly interested in exploring the change when swapping mains. We'll see.

As with the first book, it's a bit of a mix between just following the anime, and adding some stuff from the book for some extra context. I suppose you might think of it as an abridged version of the original book.

Overall I feel confident calling this book more ambitious than my rewrite of the first one, though it still follows the same line of events.

All respect to Maruyama Kugane for creating this series that has engrossed me so much.


	2. The Fortress City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In an effort to gain more information about this world, Ainz took Lupusregina Beta along to go undercover as Adventurers, hoping to make a name for themselves, and establish some worthwhile connection.

* * *

"According to Aura's report of the surrounding areas, there is still no sign of any other Yggdrasil players," Albedo said. "She is currently in the process of expanding our surveillance to the great woodlands near Nazarick."

It was the eighth morning since the incident that had carried them to this strange world, and Ainz and Albedo were having their daily meeting in Ainz's quarters. The grand room had essentially turned into her office, as she mostly sat at her desk when she was here. Albedo was standing by the desk delivering her report.

"Understood," Ainz said. Not meeting any other players was both a relief and a disappointment. She wanted to believe others were here, but was also aware of how dangerous it would be to get into conflict with them. "Tell Aura to proceed as planned."

Albedo nodded in understanding. "Next up is our prisoners," she continued. "The man in charge, Nigun, has revealed to us that he was the commander of a special ops unit under the Sunlit Scripture of the Slane Theocracy. By his own words, they handled 'illegal activities'."

"Like raiding another country's lands while trying to pin it on someone else," Ainz commented with a wry smile. From what they had learned, the Theocracy had six Scriptures, each dedicated to their own god. All with the common goal of uniting humanity against the non-human races. "For now we should stay away from them as much as possible." They seemed like a dangerous group, and with their creed it was highly unlikely they would cooperate with Nazarick in any way. She would like to know more about them, though. "Anything else?"

"Unfortunately it seems like persuasion magic loses its effectiveness when used too many times on the same person," Albedo said. "Even if he knows more, we may not be able to squeeze it out of him. And the others who survived knew much less than him."

"That's a shame, but nothing we can do about that." Ainz tapped a finger on the desk. "Make sure to collect and organise everything we've learned about the Slane Theocracy in its own file. I'm sure you can find someone suitable for the task."

"As you wish, Ainz-sama." Albedo bowed. "Lastly, what are your plans for that village?" she asked.

"They are so far our only foothold in this world, and we managed to gain it on friendly terms." Ainz had pondered what to do with the village of Carne, if anything. It would be nice if she could do something useful with the place. "Avoid creating a negative image of us as much as possible. I'd like to retain their goodwill."

"Understood. Then that concludes my daily report."

"Good work, Albedo," Ainz said with a smile. All of them were very diligent, but Albedo certainly lived up to the role she had been made for.

"Thank you, Ainz-sama, but I have done nothing worthy of praise," Albedo responded with a faint blush in her cheeks. "Is there anything else you would like? Perhaps a hug?"

"Um..." _Damn, she's got me figured out_. Ainz kept worrying that she was relying too much on Albedo. "Y-yes." But she couldn't seem to stop.

Albedo slipped into Ainz's lap with ease, and embraced her. The hugs were really nice, and Ainz was working on removing her guilt about them. If they were only hugging and cuddling, that was fine, right? And Albedo seemed to enjoy them too. Then again, she had been rewritten to be that way. This was such a complicated situation.

Even if she was based on Tabula's settings, Albedo was a sentient being with her own will now. That had to count for something.

There was a knock on the door.

"Go see who it is," Ainz said, and Albedo smoothly got up. She moved with such grace it was somewhat astounding.

"Shalltear wishes to see you," Albedo said after checking.

"Show her in."

The youthful-looking vampire stepped into the room. When it came to grace, she could certainly match Albedo. Ainz had a feeling that there was maybe some rivalry between the two of them, but they had never shown it overtly in her presence.

"I'm glad to see you well, Ainz-sama," Shalltear said with a charming smile, and curtsied.

"And I you, Shalltear. What brings you to my quarters today?" Ainz asked. She tried to remember if there was something special going on.

"I came to gaze upon your lovely countenance," Shalltear said without a trace of sarcasm. Her old-fashioned way of speaking was little peculiar at times, and considering how she was around Aura, clearly at least in part an act, but Ainz supposed it made sense that Peroroncini would have created her that way.

"If that's all, then you are free to leave again," Albedo chimed in sweetly.

Shalltear huffed. "I am leaving on my assignment with Sebas today, and won't be back to the Great Tomb of Nazarick for a while. So I thought it only right to have an audience with our master before our departure," she said, half to Ainz, half to Albedo.

Oh right, that was today. Sebas was taking the long route to the capital for some reconnaissance, while Shalltear was on a hunting mission, and would ride along part of the way. "I wish you luck, Shalltear. Stay sharp, stay focused, and come back safe," Ainz said earnestly. She couldn't bear the thought of any of them getting hurt, but they had to use the resources and manpower they had at their disposal as efficiently as possible.

"Of course, Ainz-sama," Shalltear replied.

"You are free to leave. On your way out, tell one of the maids to have Demiurge come see me. Let him know I have something to discuss regarding our next move."

"As you wish, Ainz-sama."

* * * 

E-Rantel, the Fortress City. One of the largest cities in the Re-Estize Kingdom, and certainly the most strategically important. Situated close to the border to both the Baharuth Empire, and the Slane Theocracy, it served as the stronghold to stop incursions from either nation into the Kingdom.

It had three layers of walls to help it live up to its name. In the innermost area was the city's administrative core, which also contained all of the storehouses for military provisions. It was constantly under tight security. The outermost area was where the royal army was stationed, and had all the military facilities. In between those two was where the townspeople lived.

It was a vibrant city full of vendors, travellers, merchants, and locals all milling about. But perhaps the most well-known landmark was the Adventurer's Guild, and all the Adventurers it brought with it. E-Rantel was the hub of all Adventuring activity in the area, and constantly had jobs on offer for those willing to take them on.

It was also where new Adventurers went to register themselves. And two such newcomers just exited the Guild building. The whole plaza froze as the two drew everyone's eyes.

One was a woman who appeared to be around 20 years old, with brilliantly red hair tied into two braids, soft, yellow eyes, and an unusually brown skin for this area, showing that she'd likely come from elsewhere. She had the sort of presence that seemed to light up the area around her, making even the simple brown robe she was wearing look refined. Though the sturdy mace hanging from her belt might make one a little cautious about approaching her.

Her companion was completely encased in black plate armour, with the only colour being some ruby accents, and the crimson cloak draped down their back. Two hilts came out behind the shoulder blades, and when the cloak moved a couple of double-headed axes could be seen flashing underneath. Harder to see was a curious contraption mounted down at the back of the waist. There were no characteristics to mark what the sex of the person inside might be, but considering the size most would assume it was a man.

* * *

And they would be wrong, because this was Ainz Woolfe Gown, and Lupusregina Beta, disguised as Adventurers. People were so drawn to their appearance, that only the most sharp-eyed would have noticed their copper plates, signifying them as the lowest rank of Adventurer.

While she had shape-shifted into her human form, Ainz had elected to not reduce her size much. Realising that she did indeed have some ability to control what her human form would look like had led to lots and lots of experimentation to find a look she was happy with. Almost like being in a character creator again.

As for bringing Lupusregina along, that had taken some deliberation.

Albedo had wanted to be the one to come along, and honestly Ainz had kinda wanted the same, but there were several reasons why that didn't work. First off, she trusted Albedo most when it came to managing Nazarick in Ainz's absence. Second, Albedo didn't have any disguise magic, which made hiding her inhuman appearance awkward. Third, as a proper warrior Albedo would obviously outshine Ainz's act of being a warrior. Maybe that was a petty reason, but she wanted to try something different, and see if it was possible to gain something from it.

Among the others, of course Cocytus was out. Demiurge was occupied with a different mission, as was Sebas, Solution, and Shalltear. Though Shalltear looked too young anyway, which also ruled out the twins. That really only left the Pleiades, as they were created to look more or less human.

Entoma was obviously ruled out, as she couldn't pass for human up close. You might be able to explain Shizu's appearance, and hide her more blatantly mechanical parts, but this world did not seem advanced enough to accept firearms. That left Yuri, Lupusregina, and Narberal.

As a supposed warrior, Ainz thought it best to have a support character as a partner, which unfortunately ruled Yuri out. She was a frontline fighter, with little support abilities in combat. Narberal was a mage, and Lupusregina a cleric, so they both seemed valid. It had honestly been a tough choice, but in the end she had gone for Lupusregina simply she was a bit more familiar with her. And a fighter/healer combo seemed to make sense.

* * *

They had turned away from the cobbled street leading from the Guild, onto what was essentially a dirt path leading down towards a reasonably cheap inn they had been informed of.

When she judged no one was nearby enough to listen, Lupusregina spoke up. "Ainz-sa-"

"No. We've been over this," Ainz said, suppressing a sigh. More than once. "Here I'm Varena. You're Regina. We're two Adventurers here to make a name for ourselves."

"Ah, I'm sorry, Varena-sama!" Lupusregina said.

"Drop the -sama too."

"B-but you're a Supreme Being!" Lupusregina sounded shocked at the mere implication.

"Listen. It's too suspicious. We're supposed to be comrades," Ainz explained. "I know you know how to put on an act, so I order you to not use -sama while we're here."

Lupusregina pouted a little, but she wouldn't oppose a direct order. "Understood, Varena-san."

"Er... the -san is a little... no, you know what, it's fine," Ainz wasn't able to stop that slight sigh from coming out this time. "Just be careful. It's very important that no one suspects anything."

"Yes, my- yes, Varena-san."

This was going to be trickier than she had hoped.

"But I was wondering whether it is truly right for me to accompany you?" Lupusregina asked. "Wouldn't bringing Albedo-sama be more appropriate to ensure your safety?"

"I've taken all of that into consideration, and this was the best choice," Ainz said more confidently than she honestly felt. There was so much about this whole plan she could second-guess, but it was bit late for that now.

"Understood, Varena-san!" At least Lupusregina seemed convinced.

As they kept going, Ainz noticed a certain amount of suspicion in Lupusregina's eyes as she looked at various people they passed. Considering the throne console only told her about her subordinates' abilities, and not their personalities, she felt compelled to ask. She had been shown Lupusregina's settings once as a way to poke fun at her (' _look, she's just like you'_ ), but she wasn't sure how that played out here.

"Do you dislike humans?" As Albedo's reaction to humans seemed like it was shared among several other floor guardians, Ainz wondered to what extent it applied to everyone else.

"Huh? No, not really," Lupusregina replied with a shrug. "They can be fun. But as your guard, I have to be prepared for anything."

Ainz put a hand to her helmet as a gesture of exasperation. They'd have to go over this one more time once they got a room.

* * *

While she had already figured out the armour, the question of what weapons to use had been a different matter. So she had consulted Cocytus as the resident weapons expert.

His initial advice had been double-edged swords. He had a fondness for swords himself over other weapons, but Ainz felt they were a little too... cliche. So she had inquired about polearms.

"I BELIEVE A POLEARM WOULD BE TRICKY FOR SOMEONE WITH NO TRAINING OR EXPERIENCE," he had said, then seemed to suddenly remember who he was talking to. "MY DEEPEST APOLOGIES, AINZ-SAMA! I DID NOT MEAN TO IMPLY ANYTHING IS TOO TRICKY FOR A SUPREME BEING SUCH AS YOURSELF!"

"It's okay, Cocytus," Ainz had had to assure him. "You are right that I lack experience, which is why I appreciate your honesty on the matter."

After getting him to calm down, and deliberating some more, they had settled on double-headed axes as something that would be reasonably okay for someone to start with, and still look impressive, so long as they had the strength to wield them freely.

She had spent some time practising her swings against dummies, and even added a magical item to her arsenal, which was now strapped to the back of her waist. Very hard to spot due to the cloak.

* * * 

The double swing doors, almost like you'd find in an old saloon, amused Ainz. So no one thought it necessary to ever lock down the place? Maybe robberies weren't a concern. She grabbed them, and pushed them aside, stepping inside the room with Lupusregina a step behind to her side.

It was exactly like an old movie, where the whole room went quiet. There was a bar, round tables, and a handful of patrons scattered about. All of whom had plates that marked them as Adventurers. Most were copper or iron, but there were a couple of silvers. Everyone's attention turned to the two newcomers, especially noting Ainz's full plate, but as soon as they spotted the copper plates around their necks, the atmosphere relaxed a little again. Not completely, but a little.

Ainz went up to the bar to talk to the innkeeper, while Lupusregina cast glances at everyone in the room, probably evaluating how much of a threat they could be.

"You want a room?" the innkeeper asked without looking up. "It's five bronze pieces a night for a shared room. The meals are oatmeal, with some leftover bread occasionally. If you want meat, that costs extra."

"I'd like a room for just the two of us," Ainz said. Her voice wasn't any more of an indicator of her sex than her equipment was, distorted as it sounded through the helmet. But again it was deep enough that people would assume it was a man's. "Meals are not necessary." They both had items equipped that let them ignore thirst and hunger, though Ainz was still avoiding using one that let her ignore sleep. She was worried about the state of her mind.

That wasn't to say that they couldn't eat, but Ainz wanted to be careful with her money. The reward she had gotten from Carne seemed sizeable, but she still knew little of what things were worth in this world.

"You're just copper plates, aren't you?" the innkeeper said, finally looking up.

"We've only just registered at the guild," Ainz said, with a tone clearly implying that was the only reason they were still copper.

The innkeeper frowned. "Seven copper a night. Up front." His tone had grown markedly irritated.

"That's fine," Ainz said, placing the money on the counter.

Maybe the man had been worried they didn't have money, because his stance eased again. "The room is on the second floor, in the back," he said, handing them the key, and pointing his thumb towards the stairs.

Ainz turned to head to the stairs, and suddenly a leg was thrust out in her way. She stopped for a moment, looked at the leg, then at the man it belonged to. He had a nasty smirk on his face, and the others at the table were much the same.

 _Sheesh, really?_ Ainz thought, and pushed the leg out of her way with her boot.

As if waiting for that cue, that man got up out of his seat, and in the way of Ainz. "Hey now, that hurt!" His claim did not sound the least bit believable.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ainz said flatly. "It's hard to see with this helmet on, you understand."

"Well, what are you going to do to make up for it, hm?" he asked, with a clearly implied threat underneath. His eyes drifted to Lupusregina. "Maybe you should lend me your woman there so she can treat my wounds."

Ainz burst out a short laugh before Lupusregina could take any action, and after a moment she seemed to have read the mood, and joined in with a chuckle herself.

"What's so funny?" he asked. He wasn't exactly a small man. Even in this armour, Ainz only looked barely taller. His armour was much lighter, so his bulky form was easily visible, and his plate was of iron.

"Ahaha, I'm sorry. You just sounded so much like a stereotypical punk that I couldn't help myself." Ainz figured he could have fit right into any book or TV show with a setting like this.

"As if you could handle me," Lupusregina added with a smirk.

The punk's face started to go red. "What? You bastards..." Though that was as far as he got before Ainz grabbed his shirt with one hand, and effortlessly lifted him into the air.

"You're too weak to even play around with," Ainz stated, and tossed the man towards the other end of the room.

Expressions of surprise and amazement spread as the man flew across the room, and crashed into a table. They might be imagining how strong someone had to be to pull that off with one hand.

Ainz turned towards the rest at the table. "So, what happens now? Will you all come at me, or will you play nice, and pay the innkeeper for the table your friend broke?" Her tone might seem pleasant enough on the surface, but what lay underneath was not well hidden.

"W-we'll pay," the men said.

Before Ainz could respond further, there was a strange, piercing yell coming from the woman who had sat the table the man landed on. As if she had just witnessed a great wrong be committed.

"Hey! Hey hey hey! Hey, you!" she called out as she marched right over to Ainz. "What do you think you're doing?!"

She looked so upset that it took Ainz off guard. "What?" was all she was able to reply in bewilderment.

"You broke my potion!" the woman yelled. Her short hair had a colour similar to Lupusregina's, and she had a cute, freckled face that was currently very offended at the injustice of this world. Her muscled physique was nothing to sneeze at, though. Those arms looked like they could easily crush a man.

"So? It was just a potion?" Ainz was puzzled at this level of outrage.

"Just a..." The look of angry disbelief on her face seemed to disagree. "I skimped and saved all I could, watched my spending as much as possible, went hungry some nights, all to be able to afford that potion. I got it today, Today, and then you just come in here and break it! You had better pay for it!"

"Why not have these men cover the cost?" Ainz asked. The man she had thrown had started it, after all.

"It was 1 gold, and 10 silver. There's no way these drunkards can afford that," the redhead said sullenly.

 _Ah, that's why you came straight at me_ , Ainz thought. She had honestly no idea how much money that was, but she knew she didn't have it. She had exchanged some of her reward into silver coins, but that still didn't really tell her the value of it. That was one of the things she had to learn while she was here.

"Or you could replace my potion," the woman suggested. "Someone with gear such as yours surely has some to spare."

Ainz could see Lupusregina's stance shift. "W-wait." That was mostly aimed at Lupusregina, as Ainz was slightly grateful for that lifeline. A potion she could do. "Alright. What sort of potion was it?" she asked. The splash of blue liquid on the floor didn't match anything she'd seen before.

"Huh? A healing potion, obviously," the woman said.

 _That's a healing potion? But why is it_... Well, she needed to move on, so she could part with one healing potion. She did feel a bit bad about this, after all. It would be so helpful if she could click on people to see their status boxes, and see how much HP they had. Still, a lesser healing potion was probably fine, so she pulled one out.

"Please accept this with my apologies," Ainz said, holding forth the flask of red liquid. "I'll make sure to look where I'm throwing in the future."

The redhead gave the potion a dubious look. Ainz was worried she might not accept it. She suddenly remembered the way the girls at the village had reacted too. If they're used to blue potions... maybe spreading these red ones around... well, it was too late to take it back now. That would definitely seem even more suspicious.

"I guess it's fine..." the woman finally said, and accepted the potion. She didn't seem entirely pleased, but at least she'd taken it.

"Let's go," Ainz said to Lupusregina, whose hand was still on the hilt of her mace. They had to get out of here before she decided Ainz's honour was too important to not defend.

Once the two were up the stairs, and out of sight, the room stirred back into action.

* * * 

Ainz removed her helmet once the door was closed. "So that's what Adventurers are like, huh?" she pondered out loud.

"Why did you let that woman disrespect you like that, Ainz-sama?" Lupusregina asked.

"Varena. It's Varena. And you're Regina. Do we really have to keep going over this?" Ainz was feeling certain regrets.

"Ah! My apologies, Varena-san," Lupusregina corrected herself.

Ainz sighed. "Also, her potion got destroyed because I got careless, so in the end it was only fair that I gave her a replacement." Better than having to pay for one, at least. "Plus she's an iron plate, so she's our senior as Adventurers. We need to maintain good relations, and a good image. Understood?"

"Understood, Varena-san!" Lupusregina was suddenly down on one knee.

"What are you..." Ainz rubbed her forehead. They'd need to work more on this. "Let's recap the plan once more." She really wanted to make sure that Lupusregina knew what they were here to do, and how they meant to do it.

* * *

The main goal of the plan was to gain information. The guardians had not been fond of Ainz stating that she was personally going to E-Rantel, especially after learning none of them would be going with her. But the importance of this was too great to leave to someone else. She had exercised her privilege to get them to accept it, and help her get ready.

They had done some basic information gathering to try to learn what was 'normal' in this world, and how much they would have to constrain themselves. Using their full power was out of the question. Plus gaining some basic knowledge of what to do once they reached E-Rantel had come in handy. But basic was as far as they got, so they needed to properly go in to learn more. And Ainz had to learn this firsthand.

Going undercover as fresh Adventurers, the two would work to ascend the ranks, make connections, and establish relations that would hopefully let them learn more about this world. Maybe even earn some favours with the right people. As they got to the higher ranks of mythril, orichalcum, or even adamantite plates, it was logical that more connections and opportunities would open up to them.

And she assumed that the jobs at those levels were more important, and would earn greater rewards in terms of what they could learn. And more money. There was a high likelihood that future plans would rely on having a steady cash flow. There was still the option of attempting to get someone to convert Yggdrasil money into local currency, but the risk of letting Yggdrasil coins out there was enormous.

While she was hoping to find other Yggdrasil players, it was risky to let them find her first. She remembered how things had been in the game, so there was absolutely no guarantee other players would be friendly, especially not towards her Guild. Competition had been rough, and on top of that they were a Guild of inhumans. A lot of players looked down on those. In fact, such players were probably more likely to align themselves with the Slane Theocracy, and their pro-human agenda.

Secretly she was also curious if she would be able to gain any skills or aptitude for being a warrior by posing as one. Considering her experiments so far, it seemed unlikely, but even if she just gained some relevant experience, that would be something.

Their first goal for tomorrow was to start working.

* * *

"Brilliant as expected, Varena-san," Lupusregina said.

The way they all could say such things, and sound completely sincere, hadn't stopped unnerving Ainz yet.

"Now, I'm going out to survey our surroundings. I'd like to get a feel for the layout of the city," Ainz said. She'd like to see for herself what she had heard of, and see what else there was to find.

"I'll come with-" Lupusregina started to say, but Ainz raised a hand.

"I need you here to guard the room, in case anyone tries to mess with it," Ainz said firmly.

Lupusregina didn't seem thrilled about it, but she didn't raise any objections. "As you wish, Ai- Varena-san."

"And take care of our regular check-in while I'm out," Ainz ordered. They had agreed to check in with Albedo at Nazarick every day. She didn't intend to make Lupusregina do it every time, but tonight she just wanted to go for a walk.

"Yes, Varena-san," Lupusregina replied.

Another thing that had been taken into consideration since they started making plans was how many of the former NPCs knew the Message skill. As it turned out, only Albedo and Demiurge had been given the skill during their creation. Ainz assumed for flavour reasons. No one in the Guild had ever suspected NPCs would need a skill only players used.

So she had initiated a crash course, seeing how many of them were able to pick up the skill in a short amount of training. Shalltear and Mare had had no problem. Cocytus's build wasn't suited for learning that skill, so he'd probably never get it. Mare had promised to keep trying to teach Aura, but she might have to use scrolls or communicate through her brother. They had a bond, after all.

Among the Pleiades it was Lupusregina, Narberal, and Entoma who had so far managed to pick it up. Which was really another mark against taking Yuri along. The others might get it eventually, but there were no guarantees.

Ainz just barely remembered to put her helmet back on before she left. If she was being realistic it was just a matter of time until something, big or small, went wrong, but at least it wouldn't be this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though we haven't seen a lot of her, I like Brita. I doubt she'll be reappearing in the proper books, but it would be fun if I could work her into my version. Though if I'm honest with myself, there's a high likelihood I'll end up forgetting.


	3. A Strange Request

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Ainz is about to get her Adventuring career started, she suddenly gets requested by name. Even though no one in this city should know her yet.

* * *

The next morning a certain redhead was approaching an apothecary shop. It was not the same one she had bought her potion at, but it was the one she had been directed to as the best in town after getting this strange new potion.

Like any other Adventurer, or even person, in E-Rantel, Brita had never seen a red potion before. So there was the possibility she had been duped, but the guy in the armour had seemed sincere enough in his apology. So she was going to get it appraised, and the innkeeper had told her this was the best place.

When she opened the door, a bell rang to signal her arrival.

"Hello, may I help you?" came a voice from further in, and a young man, no, a boy stepped into sight.

"Nphirea Balear-san?" Brita asked. She knew his name, but hadn't expected him to be so young.

"Yes. Do you have some business with me?" Nphirea asked.

"I'd like to get something appraised," Brita said, and handed over the note the innkeeper had written for her.

Nphirea read through it quickly. "I see... can you show me the potion?" he asked.

Brita took the potion out, and held it up to about the boy's eye level. Immediately she could sense something changing about him.

He parted his bangs to get a proper look at the potion with both eyes. Then he gently took it from Brita, and carefully rocked it back and forth a few times. "Ah, excuse me. I can't say much right now, but would you please come with me?" he asked.

Brita agreed, and went along to another room in the back, where another person was sitting by a table full of flasks and brewing equipment.

"Grandma!" Nphirea called out. "Take a look at this!" A grouchy face turned to look at the two of them, before turning her attention to the potion Nphirea put on the table.

 _So that's Lizzy Balear?_ Brita pondered. Lizzy was well-known as the best pharmacist in the city, so if anyone knew what this potion was, it had to be her.

"A red...?" Lizzy sounded puzzled, but intrigued. Or maybe even excited.

"What do you think?" Nphirea asked her.

Brita was not sure what was going on, and was afraid to ask.

"Well, let's have a look..." Lizzy said, and held forth her arm. "Appraisal Magic Item, Detect Enchant." They heard a gasp escape her, and then she started giggling. A strange sound from a woman her age.

"Grandma?"

"This is... eeheehee... I can't believe it," Lizzy seemed positively giddy. "Nphirea, all potions turn blue in the manufacturing process, right?" It was clearly a rhetorical question, but Nphirea nodded anyway. "Well, this is a potion of legend. 'A true potion of healing exhibits the colour of God's Blood'. Something we have been never able to create before. I've heard the legend, but I can't believe I got to see one..." The amazement in her voice made her sound younger.

Brita truly felt like this went way over her head. "So does this mean...?" she hesitantly started to ask, and Lizzy's focus snapped right to her.

"This potion is equivalent to a second tier healing spell, and worth at least 8 gold pieces..." Lizzy said. That was good news. "But considering its rarity, it's possible people might try to kill you for it." That was bad news. "Would you be willing to sell it to me? I can offer you a very good deal. How about 30 gold?" The old woman's grin was a bit intimidating.

"Um... I..." Brita was torn, and confused. 30 gold was a fortune unlike anything she could ever imagine getting her hands on. But clearly this potion was so rare that she was unlikely to ever get another one. Yet that stranger in the armour had handed one over like it was nothing.

Lizzy sighed, and smiled a little more kindly. "Well then, how about a different deal?"

* * *

Early that same morning Ainz and Lupusregina had made their way back to the Guild, and were looking at the postings on the job board. When she had asked at the reception desk, Ainz had been told to go pick something from there.

Everyone else in the room seemed to have silver or gold plates, so Ainz was highly conscious of the way they were looking at her copper plate, and appraising her appearance.

However the bigger problem was this: She couldn't read any of this. While something, some sort of magic probably, made it possible for her to understand what was spoken to her, that clearly did not extend to written text. She had been afraid of that. Lupusregina couldn't understand a word of it either.

It was possible that there was some magic item at Nazarick that would let her read this world's writing, but that did not help her right now. Well, she liked languages, so learning a new one might not be such a bad thing, but where would she even start. With no frame of reference, she'd need a teacher. She'd have to think about that later. For now there was only one thing to do.

She tore a random piece of paper off of the board, and slammed it onto the receptionist's desk. "I'd like to take this job," she stated.

The receptionist looked surprised, then kindly explained: "I'm sorry, but that's a job for a mythril plate adventurer."

Well, time to practice her bluffing. "I know. That's why I took it," Ainz said confidently.

"There are rules that must be followed," the woman said patiently.

Ainz felt a bit like a heel, and the attention in the room was turning towards the spectacle. She hated making a scene, but... "I assure you Regina and I are more than qualified. She's a cleric capable of tier three magic, and my strength as a warrior is equal to her level."

One of the things they had learned from their basic information gathering was that tier three was the highest level of magic human beings could reasonably hope to cast. There were the stories of people that could be counted as part of the Realm of Heroes being able to cast all the way up to five, but tier three was the mark of a highly accomplished caster. Not to mention that a cleric and a warrior were generally seen as a powerful combination.

A lot of murmuring arose in the room, wondering whether or not Ainz was bluffing, and some annoyance that she was trying to skirt the rules.

"Is there no room for a little leeway?" Ainz asked in what she hoped was a friendly tone. "We would like to a job that is worthy of our skills."

"I'm very sorry," the receptionist repeated. "But the rules are there for a reason. A lot of people could get killed if you fail this job."

Ainz recognised this as the point to give in. Maybe she had even pushed it a little far, and she felt sorry for the receptionist. She had worked in customer service before, and would have been annoyed at someone behaving the way she just had.

"I understand. My apologies for sounding so selfish," Ainz said, bowing her head slightly. "Then please give us the hardest request for a copper plate."

"Very well. Give me a moment," the receptionist smiled, and got up.

Ainz was relieved that she was getting what she wanted. But she really needed to learn this language sooner rather than later.

"If you're looking for a challenge, how about helping us out?" a man's voice called out to her.

"Eh?" He sounded friendly, but Ainz still felt a bit of irritation at someone interrupting when she had gone through all of that to finally get what she wanted.

As she looked over, she saw a band of four adventurers, all wearing silver plates.

* * *

Ainz  agreed to go with them to hear them out, and the receptionist arranged for a room for them to meet in. It was a gamble, since it might be tricky to get the receptionist to go get a job her a second time, but since they were silver, it was quite possible that the job was better than anything her copper plate could get her.

"Well then, let me do our introductions," a man with dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing banded mail armour spoke. "I am Peter Mauk, leader of the Swords of Darkness." He looked like the warrior type, so he was probably the tank. Assuming those roles carried over into this world. It was still hard to not think of everything in MMORPG terms.

"Over there is our team's eyes and ears, the ranger Lukrut Volve." Sitting at the far end of the table was a blond man with brown eyes, and very long, slim limbs. He reminded Ainz of an elf, except he didn't have the ears for it. There was a jokey tenderness to his expression, and he gave a little wave that seemed explicitly aimed at Lupusregina.

"This is the druid Dyne Woodwonder, he deals with healing magic, and nature manipulation."

"Nice to meet you," Dyne said. He had a messy blond beard, and a large, solid build, bringing to mind the image of a bear, but the way he spoke was dignified.

"And lastly, the brains of our team, the caster Ninya the Spell Master."

"Nice to meet you," Ninya said. He was clearly the youngest on the team, with short brown hair, and bright blue eyes. While the other members all had some form or armour, Ninya only wore light leather and cloth. As expected of a mage. "But Peter, do you have to keep calling me that?" he asked his leader, clearly embarrassed.

"Eh? What's wrong with it?" Peter said, faintly amused.

Lukrut decided to chime in. "See, Ninya's a talent holder."

"Oh, a talent holder?" Now that got Ainz's attention. They had learned of talents while interrogating the prisoners from the Sunlit Scripture. Special abilities that people were born with. Apparently Nigun had also had one. Neither talents not martial arts had existed in Yggdrasil, so the opportunity to learn more about either was very welcome. If only they had some way of acquiring these skills for themselves, that would give Nazarick a big boost.

"Ninya's talent is Magic Affinity," Peter helpfully explained. "It means you learn magic twice as fast as others, right? So something that would take other eight years, Ninya can learn in four."

"That's amazing," Ainz said honestly. Though it seemed a little curious that it would take so many years to learn a spell. Or did they learn multiple at once? If she got the opportunity, she'd like to ask Ninya more about it.

"I feel very lucky to be born with this talent," Ninya said humbly. "I'm fortunate it has been able to help me out."

From Ainz's understanding, there was no guarantee that someone's talent would line up with their nature, so for some people they may go largely unused. But it also served as a temptation towards taking up certain professions, like Adventuring.

"Ninya's a famous talent holder in this city," Peter said, clearly proud of his comrade.

"Well, there's someone even more famous than me," Ninya said in response, still humble.

"Oh? Who would that be?" Ainz asked, and by the sudden silence, she realised they must have thought her words odd.

"You don't know?" Peter asked. "I take it that means you're not from around here?"

"That's correct, we arrived in the city only yesterday," Ainz said, thankful for the easy way out of that situation.

"Ah, that explains why no one's heard of you, in spite of your magnificent armour, and beautiful companion..."

Lupusregina seemed pleased by the compliment.

"He means Master Balear," Dyne chimed in.

"May I ask what his talent is?" Ainz asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

"Nphirea Balear is is the grandson of a famous pharmacist, and his talent allows him to use any and every magic item. Including all sorts of scrolls, and supposedly even items that only non-humans can typically use. I'd bet on him even being able to use items that require royal blood." Peter seemed filled with admiration for this Nphirea Balear.

Ainz felt both impressed and wary. How far did this talent go? Could Nphirea use something like the Staff, which was meant to only work for its Guild Leader? Could he make use of World Items? This seemed very useful, and extremely dangerous. Someone they'd have to keep an eye on. She could tell by Lupusregina's expression that she was thinking similar things. They'd discuss it later.

"Ah, how rude of me. It's our turn then," Ainz said. "I'm Varena, and this is Regina, as you may have heard earlier. I'm a warrior, and she's a cleric. We look forward to working with you." If they thought it odd that Ainz only introduced them with one name, it didn't show on their expressions. It could be common for Adventurers.

"Well then, onto the job we're doing," Peter said, and sat down. "We're going out to exterminate monsters that appear near E-Rantel. It's not really a job request as such, but based on the monsters we slay, the Guild receives money from the city that we get paid with. That's will be our reward for this." He sounded a little awkward, as if he was worried Ainz would think they'd roped her in on false pretences.

 _So, it's like grinding monsters for exp and drops_ , Ainz thought. Something she was very familiar with.

"It's a necessary task in our way of life," Dyne said gravely.

"And it puts food on the table," Lukrut added in a more cheerful tone. "Plus it makes the area safer for the people around us. A simple win-win situation."

"We'll be heading to the forest south of here, and deal with any monsters that come spilling out," Peter said, taking out a rough map of the area to show them. "What do you say, Varena-san? Will you join us?"

If she was perfectly honest, Ainz didn't think this sounded like the most exciting work, but she was also aware it was unlikely she'd get anything better at her rank. On the upside, she'd get to see this group in action, and even watch a talent holder perform. This seemed like a well-balanced team, accounting for all sorts of possibilities. The only thing she could imagine would really add to the team would be someone with rogue and assassin skills, to help with traps, locks, and such things you found in dungeons. Though maybe they didn't have dungeons as such in this world.

"It's a deal, we'll go with you," Ainz said, and had to smile to how cheered up they all seemed by that. Ah, one more thing. "Since we'll be working together for a while, I suppose I should show you my face." It would be nice if she could take off her helmet occasionally in the field as well. She reached up, and unfastened the helmet before pulling it off. Since she usually just disenchanted it, it was a little strange to do it this way, but she had made sure to practice, just in case.

There was a collective gasp among the Swords of Darkness. "A... woman?" Peter was the first to speak.

Ainz had spent a lot of time getting this appearance right. She had the same brown skin as Lupusregina, as she had figured it would be wise to make it look like they were from the same place. Her hair was the same reddish brown as her fur was in her usual form, and it was only at shoulder-length. So by comparison Lupusregina stood out a bit more, though Ainz's brilliant blue eyes had a way of drawing people in. Age-wise she seemed to be at least 30, but beyond that it was hard to say for sure.

"Yes. Is that a problem?" Ainz asked with a kind, motherly smile.

"Ah, no, it's just..." Peter started.

"We thought..." Ninya continued.

Ainz's smile turned into a smirk. "Don't worry about it, it's intentional," she said, and in response to their puzzled expressions, she added: "You see, you tend to attract a lot less trouble if people think it's a man and woman travelling together, compared to if it's two women."

There was a collective muttering of: "Ah, that makes sense." And a hushed comment of: "She's older than I expected." Followed by: "That's rude." Ainz was certainly older than anyone here, having passed 30 back in the old world.

Ainz set the helmet on the table. "If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer."

"I don't want to be rude, but I am curious where you're from," Peter said. "I've heard of a country somewhere down south where people are said to have looks like yours..."

"We've travelled a long way," Ainz said in response. Which was absolutely true.

"I have a question!" Lukrut raised his hand. "Are you single, Regina-chan? Will you go out with me?" Suddenly he was down on one knee by Lupusregina's side.

Ainz blinked her eyes several times.

"I'm sorry about him," Peter said with an exasperated sigh.

"Ah, no worries," Lupusregina spoke up with a chirpy tone. She seemed amused by the attention. While she had let Ainz lead the conversation so far, she could be quite sociable when she wanted to. "Though I'm sorry to say you're not my type, little pup," she said, and reached out to pat Lukrut's head. Ainz idly wondered what Lupusregina's type was.

Lukrut swooned. "Won't you even give me a chance?"

"Nope!" Lupusregina said, and grinned.

"Utter rejection!" Lukrut said dramatically, and flopped over.

"That's enough, Lukrut," Peter said, physically grabbing him and pulling him away. "I'm truly sorry about my friend's rudeness."

Ninya sent them a clear 'I'm so sorry' look as well.

Ainz had to chuckle a little herself. "I should put my helmet back on before we go. I don't want everyone to know my secret yet, after all." Eventually she did want to make it known, as she figured it would make her even more noteworthy, but it could wait until after she had proven herself. Once she'd reached mythril, or orichalcum. She gave them a wink, before putting the helmet back on. It had been a fun little performance, and she was glad Lupusregina had been able to react like that, instead of murdering Lukrut or something.

* * *

"So if we're both ready, maybe we should head out immediately?" Peter suggested as they walked back down the stairs.

"That sounds good," Ainz answered.

"Varena-san?" It was the receptionist calling out from the bottom of the stairs. Ainz stopped, and so did the rest of the group. "You have been requested for a specific job," the woman said, which created a stir in the room.

"Who would request me?" Ainz asked without thinking. She could come up with no reason that anyone outside of the Guild would know her name yet.

"Nphirea Balear-san," the receptionist replied, which caused an even bigger stir.

A young man, no wait, a teen, stepped forth. He was wearing a white shirt, dark trousers, and a workshop apron. Her dark blond hair had bangs so long they covered his entire eyes.

At his name and appearance, Lupusregina had suddenly moved in front of Ainz, and was reaching for her weapon.

Ainz gave her a quick chop in the back of the head to stop her. "Don't act without thinking," she whispered sternly.

Lupusregina gave her a hurt puppy look. "I'm very sorry," she whispered in response.

"I'm the one who requested you," the teen said.

Ainz raised her hand. "I'm very sorry, but I have already accepted a job. I can't take your request right now." It was strange to think this boy could be dangerous, but the fact that he had come and requested her by name was certainly suspicious. "I'm honoured you requested me, but..."

Peter leaned down. "Varena-san! It's a personal request for you!" he said, clearly as shocked as anyone else in the room.

Ainz hadn't expected it to be _that_ big of a deal. "That is true, but I believe it's common courtesy to finish the job I have accepted first." As surprised as they were, the murmurs in the room seemed to generally agree with the sentiment.

"But personal requests are..." Peter seemed insistent on the importance of this.

"Then how about this?" Ainz said. "I will listen to Balear-san's request, and then make my decision."

* * * 

At Ainz's request, the Swords of Darkness came along to the meeting with Nphirea Balear. Considering how little she still knew about this world and its customs, she would appreciate their perspective and input.

"I'll start by introducing myself. I'm Nphirea Balear, and I work as a pharmacist in this city."

Ainz regarded him carefully. As with Ninya, there were really no obvious signs that the boy was a talent holder. Nothing like an aura or anything. She idly wondered how they figured out who had talents, and what those talents were.

Nphirea continued: "I plan to head to the woods by the village of Carne to collect herbs, and I would like you to both act as my escort, and help with the collection."

 _Carne?_ The village Ainz had just happened to save? It was a small world, after all. Unfortunately she didn't really have any skills for guarding a third party. Lupusregina was a healer and a support caster, but she wasn't optimised for guarding someone helpless either. She was specced towards supporting other combatants. Still, she could probably do it, but Ainz had a better idea.

"The reward would be-"

"One moment, please," Ainz said, cutting Nphirea off. "Peter-san, could I interest _you_ in being hired by _me_?" she asked, which caused some confusion in the room.

"Huh?"

"For an escort job to collect herbs in a forest, it would be helpful to have a druid and a ranger along," Ainz explained.

"How astute of you, Master Varena. Indeed, I would be in my element in the woods," Dyne said. "I daresay I'd be even more useful than Lukrut." A note of pride entered his tone.

"Yeah, right, Dyney," Lukrut said, clearly not amused.

"Manipulating nature is my forte, not to mention I have some herb knowledge of my own," Dyne boasted.

"I'm okay with that if everyone else is," Peter replied. "We'd be grateful for the request."

Ainz turned her attention back to Nphirea. "I'm fine with that," the boy said with a smile.

"I'm glad," Ainz said. "Though I have one more question."

"Yes?"

"Why did you request me?" Ainz didn't want to be paranoid, but it was definitely suspicious. "I only arrived in the city yesterday, and I have no friends or family here. Not even acquaintances. So, why me?" She was worried that someone might have discovered her true identity, as unlikely as that seemed. Regardless, the answer to her question would determine her behaviour going forward.

"Oh. Well, I heard about what happened at the inn. A customer told me you defeated a higher-ranked Adventurer in an instant," Nphirea explained.

 _Oh, that_ , Ainz thought. She had hoped to make an impression what that feat, and it seemed like it had worked.

"Besides, the person I usually have escort me recently moved from E-Rantel, so I've been searching for someone to replace them." That seemed reasonable enough. "Also... copper plate Adventurers are cheaper, right?" Nphirea added, a little sheepishly.

"Ha ha, you have a point," Ainz admitted. That seemed like a decent explanation that she could accept. There was still something nagging her about this, but hopefully her worries turned out to be without cause. At least it was easier to relax now.

"Any other questions?" Nphirea addressed the others.

There were some minor queries, but pretty soon they agreed to get going. It was still early, so they should hopefully make it most of the way today.

* * *

Much earlier that morning, during what you could reasonably call the middle of the night, a hooded figure hidden by a dark cloak made their way across the E-Rantel Community Cemetery. The figure's destination was a large mausoleum. Once inside, they passed several stone caskets on their way to the central platform.

Stopping at the edge of it, the figure bent down. "Let's see... it should be... here." Their hand searched for a specific stone carving, and pushed it in. The top of the platform started moving, revealing a stairway leading down.

The figure pulled her hood back, revealing a young woman with short blond hair, and red eyes. She appeared attractive and charming, but gave off a dangerous vibe. The way she smiled was like that of a predator, for whom all the world was prey.

"I'll just let myself in~" she said quietly to herself, and started descending the stairs. The passageway led to a large cavern with several man-made touches, showing that this was someone's residence, or perhaps base of operations. It was clearly not an intended part of the cemetery. Pillars adorned with magical lights rose into the ceiling, and the back of the cavern extended further than was clearly visible.

The woman stopped not far from the base of the stairs, and looked around. Suddenly she smiled, and called out: "Khaj-san! Are you here? I've come to pay you a visit!"

A man stepped into the open. "I've told you to stop greeting me that way. It's disrespectful to the great name of Zuranon." He was dressed in a blood-red robe, and holding a staff. That, and his magical adornments, marked him as a caster. He also looked like he belonged in a cemetery, already seeming half-dead. His skin was so pale as to be called ashen, there was not a single hair on his head, and his features were thin and sunken. Yet he exuded a power that made you think twice if you assumed he was not a threat.

"So? What do you want?" he asked sullenly. Though they might belong to the same society, he did not seem particularly pleased to see her.

"Aw, don't be like that," she said with a giggle. "I even brought you a present!" From underneath her cloak she pulled out a circlet, and twirled it around her finger. It was made up of threads of metal thin as spider silk, with innumerable tiny gems set along them. A large black gem served as the focus point, to be placed where the wearer's forehead would be.

"A Crown of Wisdom!" the man exclaimed. "One of the great treasures of the Slane Theocracy."

"Exactly," the woman said with an evil grin. "I took it from this girl, and she completely lost her mind!" Her tone made it clear that she found this very funny.

"You of all people should know what happens when you remove the crown from a shrine princess," the man said.

"I suppoooose~" The woman's smile was practically ear to ear.

She had been part of the Black Scripture of the Slane Theocracy, whose job (among other things) was to handle the shrine princesses when it came time to crown a new one. The item sealed the wearer's sense of self, turning them into a human item that only worked as a font for super-high-tier magic. There was no way of safely removing it without destroying the wearer's mind. The only option if you wanted to save the wearer was to destroy the crown itself, which was a waste of such a precious item. There was however one problem...

"So you betrayed the Black Scripture for that junk?" the man asked incredulously. "Only one in a million are able to use it. You should have taken something more useful, like one of the Sacred Treaures."

"That's rather harsh," the woman said with feigned offence. "See, I've heard there's a talent holder in this city who is able to use any magic item."

That raised the man's interest. When he thought about it, he had heard of that himself. But... "You don't need my help to kidnap one person," he stated.

The woman cackled. "True enough, true enough. But I want to make a huge mess out of it!"

"Ah, so you can use the chaos to escape?" the man suggested. She was no doubt being pursued by agents of the Theocracy. Though he also suspected it was to indulge her excessive sadism, which was part of the reason he was so wary of her. He knew the woman loved to kill people, and to torment them as they died.

"Just so! What do you say, Khajit Dale Badantel?" she asked. The man grimaced at her saying his name like that. "I'll even help you out with your little ritual."

Finally the man smiled himself. The boost of magic that would provide could probably allow him to finish his ritual right away. The Jewel of Death had built up a lot of power, but not enough to do it all on its own yet.

"You have a deal, Clementine," Khajit said, a large grin spreading on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to break my own rules here, as I couldn't make out from the anime episode what honorific Dyne was using when his dialogue got translated as "Master Balear". Instead of getting that wrong, I went with the translated version.  
> Otherwise it's still mostly small changes. I was tempted to exclude both Brita's scene at the start, and Clementine and Khajit at the end, but I felt the added context would be helpful. I've had friends wonder if they could read this without knowing much at all about Overlord, so while I won't include all the side scenes, I want to at least introduce the characters.


	4. The Road There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The journey to Carne is leisurely, until a group of goblin and ogres happen upon the party.

* * *

Nphirea's cart travelled slowly along the road to Carne, with the Adventurers in formation around it. Lukrut was in front, Peter on the cart's left, Ninya and Dyne on the right, and Ainz and Lupusregina behind. They were heading north, and would turn east once they reached the forest, which would lead them all the way there. There was the slight hope of killing two birds with one stone, since if they encountered monsters coming from the forest, they'd get something extra for taking them out.

"Peter-san," Nphirea got Peter's attention. "Why don't we take a short rest up there?" the boy suggested. There was a flat area by the river where they could take a break, and let the horse have some water.

"Good idea," Peter concurred, and turned his head. "Varena-san?" He wanted to check with her as well.

"I have no objections," Ainz said, and the party settled down there.

Ainz took a seat on a rock. She wasn't used to walking this much, but at least it didn't seem like it was giving her any blisters or anything, like it would have in the old world. Her current body might be too resilient for that. But while Ainz and Lupusregina appeared to take it easy, the others remained on the lookout, Peter especially. He seemed like the most seasoned of the group, which was probably part of why he was the leader.

"We'll be heading into more dangerous territory from here, Varena-san," Peter informed her.

Indeed, they could see the forest quite clearly from here, like a wall of dark green. It was unlikely that one would be able to see very far inside, even up close.

"Understood. We'll be careful," Ainz said, glancing at Lupusregina. She was chatting idly to Dyne and Ninya about something, but she still remained alert despite appearances.

With this armour on, Ainz was only able to cast a handful of spells. If they ran into trouble, she had given Lupusregina permission to use up to tier five magic. They could probably explain that away, and hopefully that would be enough. If things got really bad, Ainz would ditch her armour, and deal with it full-force. Though she'd have to somehow silence Nphirea and the Swords of Darkness afterwards, which she would really prefer not to have to.

For now she was curious how far she could last as a frontline fighter. Even as a poser, she estimated that in stats she might equal a proper warrior around level 30, perhaps even higher. Though with no skills or abilities for the role, her effectiveness would likely be lower. Though she could also be way off in her calculations. She had been wondering about what level these four would equate to. With silver plates they clearly had some skill and experience, but it could be anywhere from level 10 to 30 as far as she knew. Seeing them in action would give her a better read, but she still wished she could see people's status boxes like in Yggdrasil. If there were any skills or items she could acquire that would give her a similar ability, that would be fantastic.

Lukrut suddenly spoke up, maybe feeling a little left out. "No need to worry, Regina-chan. So long as I'm on the lookout, we'll be absolutely fiiine." Had he picked up on her alert state? Or was he just boasting to try to score points with her? "Aren't I amazing?"

"Oh, I'm not worried!" Lupusregina said perkily. "But that's certainly not thanks to you." She was still smiling as she said that.

"Ouch, do you have to stab my heart like that?" Lukrut made a dramatic gesture, but he didn't truly sound that sad about it.

His whole team gave him awkward looks, and perhaps hoping to change the subject, Ninya spoke up. "This is the territory of the Wise King of the Forest, right?"

Ainz was intrigued. "The Wise King of the Forest?" She tried to remember whether she had heard about that in town.

Nphirea chimed in. "It's a magical beast that's been alive for hundreds of years. They say he possesses great power, and appears as a silver, four-legged beast, with a snake's tail."

Ainz remembered now. They had mentioned this creature when she was in Carne. There were virtually no eyewitness accounts, but everyone was certain they were real. Ainz assumed it had to be some kind of chimera.

"The story goes that he lives up to his name, having great wisdom, and being able to use magic," Nphirea continued. "He is the reason that there aren't a lot of very strong monsters in that forest."

"Hm... sounds like an interesting creature to meet," Ainz mused. If she could capture or recruit this Wise King, it could be very helpful for Nazarick.

Lukrut hadn't given up on Lupusregina yet, though. "If I do my job flawlessly, maybe Regina-chan will like me better," he said playfully.

" _If_ you do your job flawlessly, I'll think about maybe upgrading you from annoyance to acquaintance when we get back," Lupusregina responded. "But I warn you. My bite is worse than my bark."

Ainz had to wonder if Lupusregina had actually taken a liking to Lukrut, or if she was just trying to shut him up. Regardless, it seemed to have helped his motivation.

* * *

Once they were on the road again, Ainz continued her personal mission: Asking as many questions as she was able of everyone present. Ninya especially. She tried to be careful about what she asked, but no one had stopped her so far. And every bit of knowledge she could get about magic, martial arts, Adventurers, this country, nearby countries, and so on, was valuable. She wished she could be taking notes, but that would probably seem a bit too odd or suspicious.

But it also felt like the more questions she got answered, the number of questions she still wanted to ask multiplied. Especially in regards to magic, and how it affected this world. While at first glance this world seemed to be in the middle ages by Ainz's standards, the wide use of magic, and its replacement of technology in terms of progress, meant this world was probably closer to the industrial age, or even approaching modern. Yet because of how this world had been shaped so differently, it was nearly hopeless to make proper comparisons.

It was very interesting to learn of creation magic as well. Being able to conjure up salt, sugar, and the like. And whenever she heard them mention a spell that hadn't existed in Yggdrasil, her curiosity nearly exploded. This was definitely something she needed to explore more.

"You seem very relaxed, Regina-chan," Lukrut said all of a sudden. "Could it be that you trust in my abilities after all?"

"Hah, you wish," Lupusregina chuckled. "I can relax because Varena-san is here."

"Hm... you two wouldn't happen to be lovers or something?" Lukrut asked impishly.

This seemed to actually catch Lupusregina off-guard. "Huh? Oh, no. No no no. I couldn't," she said, waving her arms. "If anyone, it would be Albedo-sa-"

"Regina," Ainz said sternly, and put her hand on Lupusregina's shoulder, causing the smaller werewolf to visibly jump. "I would like to request that you stop prying into our personal lives, Lukrut-san."

"Ah, I'm sorry," Lukrut said. "I was only joking."

Peter walked up. "I apologise on behalf of my friend, Varena-san. He's supposed to know that it's taboo to delve into another's past," he said, and nudged Lukrut in the side.

Ainz suppressed a sigh. "Don't worry, there's no problem so long as he's careful from now on," she said.

Lupusregina looked really nervous, so Ainz patted her on the back to try to let her know it was okay. It was her first mistake, and not that big of a slip-up, so Ainz probably didn't need to take any measures. Something was bound to have gone wrong sooner or later, and if this was the worst of it, she'd count her blessings.

"You need to cut this out, Luk-" Peter started to say, but Lukrut's face had gone serious, and he raised his hand.

"They've started to make their move," he said.

Everyone understood what he meant. "Where?" Peter asked.

"Over there," Lukrut said, pointing towards an approaching group of monsters.

A mix of goblins and ogres, maybe about twenty of them in total. The first thing that hit Ainz was how all of them looked distinct. She was used to identical mobs in the game, and the knights in Carne had all worn the same armour. These were a ragtag bunch, some of the goblins armoured, some of them not. The ogres were not armoured, but they were still not identical. They had different skin colours, heights, even some distinct features. And there was even a variety in weapons among the group.

"Looks like we won't be able to avoid a fight," Lukrut commented.

"Yeah, goblin and ogres always attack if they see they have a numerical advantage," Peter said warily. "Please stay hidden in the cart, Nphirea-san," he opened with, then turned to Ainz. "Varena-san? How would you like to divide the roles?"

"Well..." she looked at the bunch of monsters, wondering just how intelligent they were. "Regina and I can handle the ogres, so don't worry about that." In fact, the bigger the target, the easier it would likely be for her. Fighting all of these small goblins would be trickier. "We'll meet them head on. Could I ask that you focus on protecting Nphirea-san?"

"Understood," Peter said, seemingly bolstered by Ainz's confidence. "If anyone gets through, we'll take care of them."

"If we start fighting like this, they may escape back into the forest," Ninya pointed out.

That was a new thing for Ainz. As a rule, monsters did not try to escape in Yggdrasil. Not unless it was part of an event, or a special rare monster based on that idea.

"Then let's do what we usually do," Lukrut said. "Pull them in, like yanking a turtle's head from its shell."

Dyne chimed in. "That sounds good. So Varena-san will block the charge, but how will we handle the ones who get through, Peter?"

"I'll use the martial art Fortress to hold the make sure the ogres are held back," Peter said, drawing his sword. "Dyne, snare any that try to get around, and guard Ninya. Ninya, cast defensive magic on me, and afterwards monitor the battle. Use offensive magic as appropriate. Lukrut, you're on goblin hunting duty."

All three of Peter's teammates answered in the affirmative, and Ainz felt a twinge of nostalgia. They were a good team, well aware of each other strengths, and how to best utilise them. They were not on the same level as her old comrades had been, but with more experience they could get close to that.

"Is that acceptable, Varena-san?" Peter asked.

Ainz recovered her focus. "Yes," she answered quite simply. She was looking forward to seeing them in action, as much as she was itching to test out her own capabilities.

Though she also had some instructions just for Lupusregina's ears: "Keep an eye on them. If any of them get badly wounded, cast some healing on them, but otherwise don't interfere. I want to see how they do. Feel free to knock out any goblins that get close to you, but don't go out of your way."

* * *

The battle commenced as the small horde of monsters came running in their direction. There was no formation to speak of, they were all just moving at basically the same speed.

Lukrut took the first shot, and let loose an arrow towards the oncoming enemies. It landed about 10 metres in front of them, and they all paused for a moment. Then they started laughing mockingly at Lukrut, before bursting into a full-speed charge.

"They fell for it," Lukrut said, sounding quite self-satisfied. Once they had gotten within proper range, he fired his next arrow, and this one went straight through a goblin's head. However they were so caught up in their frenzy, that it didn't even slow the others down. Even as the distance shrank rapidly, Lukrut nocked another arrow. He had enough faith in his team to not lose his nerve.

"Reinforce Armour!" came the call from Ninya, and the spell wrapped itself around Peter.

While the ranger kept calmly firing arrows, it became time for Peter and Dyne to move as well.

"Twine Plant!" Dyne called out, targeting the most outlying ogre. The grass the thing was walking on twisted itself into whips, and flew up to restrain the ogre. Amazingly it was strong enough to hold the brute, and it roared in frustration.

Ainz herself strolled forward at a leisurely pace, right towards the charging throng. It didn't seem like the kind of attitude one would expect from someone walking into battle. As the first ogre drew close, she reached over her shoulders, and grabbed the hilts of the axes. When she pulled them loose with seemingly no effort, the Swords of Darkness members gasped at the sight.

The heads on the axes looked more like works of art than weapons. A beautiful, brutal cruelty made manifest. Their curved edges glinted in the sunlight, and the solid spikes at the top may have just been for decoration, but looked like they could turn the axes into effective thrusting weapons as well. They were the same colour as Ainz's armour, with an intricate flowing pattern of faded gold on the sides of the heads. Almost like writing in a language no one recognised. It was hard to not see them as weapons a true hero would wield.

No one wanted to guess how much they weighed, but Ainz holding one in each hand sold how strong she had to be. Even the goblins seemed to realise they should stay clear of that, and some of them started moving around the side to head for Peter's group instead. The ogres were not so quick on the uptake, and kept charging straight at Ainz. They were big, and so were their weapons. Even the large axe handles didn't give Ainz an advantage in reach.

But once the first ogre was close enough to raise its weapon, Ainz suddenly rushed them. The speed took the ogre by such surprise that it didn't even get a chance to bring its club down before Ainz was behind it.

Someone on the battlefield went: "Whoa..." Something had happened, but it had been so quick it had been hard to see. By the time the ogre starting sliding apart with blood and innards flowing out, Ainz was swinging her axe at the next ogre. This time they could see the axe passing through the brute, and a moment later it fell too. With just two swings, Ainz had felled two ogres. Completely bisecting them.

"Is she mythril level?" Peter mumbled. "Or orichalcum? No, could she even be adamantite?"

Everyone was astonished, and it was as if the battlefield had momentarily frozen at the sight of this outlandish feat. Even the ogres had caught on to the danger, and all the ones left had stopped. The fear on their faces was evident.

"Hm? Aren't you going to attack?" Ainz asked casually, and her voice carried far in the sudden silence caused by everyone watching her.

The ogres started to backpedal, but Ainz dashed forward again. The ogre she was going for raised its club to try to defend itself, but it was clear it was too late. Too slow. The third ogre fell the same as the first two.

The goblins shook themselves free, and resumed charging at Peter and his group. Peter went in front to meet them, and quickly decapitated one goblin, before stabbing another through the heart. A third managed to get around him, and tried to strike at his back. But a shout of: "Magic Arrow!" from Ninya sent a bolt that struck the goblin with unerring precision.

That caused a group to break free, and charge at Ninya, but Lukrut threw away his bow, pulled his sword, and got in their way. He was quickly joined by Dyne, and the two of them managed to fend off the half-dozen or so goblins, while Peter handled another half-dozen on his own. Morale was low for the goblins after seeing ogres taken out so easily, which helped the Swords of Darkness hold their ground.

Over by Ainz, there were only two ogres left. The one who was trapped, and a final one who was free. When Ainz took a step forward, it emitted a pained groan, dropped its club, and ran as fast as it could back towards the forest.

"Regina," Ainz said quite simply, and Lupusregina leapt forward with a grin.

As she landed, she raised her hand into the air. "Smite!" She threw her hand forward, aimed at the fleeing ogre, and a bolt of light shot out from her finger, piercing straight through the ogre's chest. Then because she also liked to be flashy, she drew her shiny, silver mace, and leapt again. Straight at the last, trapped ogre. She did a somersault in the air, and brought the mace down on the ogre's head, instantly crushing its skull.

Ainz had hoped Lupusregina would stick to spells, but she supposed she couldn't begrudge her wanting to show off some flashy moves.

The remaining goblins froze again. "Retreat!" one of them shouted. "Run away! Run away!" came from another, and they all broke into a run to get away.

But Peter's team reacted quickly, and none of the goblins managed to get very far.

* * * 

After Ainz ordered Lupusregina to help Dyne with healing Lukrut and Peter, she walked over to Ninya, who was busy slicing the ears off of goblins and ogres.

"What are you doing?" Ainz asked.

Ninya looked up, holding an ogre's ear. "You have to turn in parts from the monsters at the guild to get the reward for them."

"So they don't drop items like crystals, and such?" Ainz had to ask.

"I've never heard of ogres carrying crystals," Ninya said, sounding slightly puzzled. Perhaps Ainz's question had seemed strange. "Though it would be great if they carried treasure around."

"I see..." Ainz had hoped this also worked like in Yggdrasil, but it honestly made sense that it didn't. People and monsters only 'dropped' what they were carrying. Which was both better and worse.

"But you were amazing out there, Varena-san," Ninya said as he got up, dropping the ear into a pouch. "You're both much more skilled that we expected. Your strength is truly something else."

The other three heard the comments, and wanted to add some of their own.

"Where did you even get weapons like that?" Lukrut asked.

"I feel like you must be as strong the royal head warrior everyone keeps talking about," Dyne said confidently.

Lupusregina looked exceedingly smug at hearing her master get praised. "Naturally," she said with a wide smile.

"I hope to be as awesome of a warrior as you some day," Peter said, then looked down. "It truly makes me realise there's always someone stronger." Though he was smiling as he looked back up.

Ainz smiled herself under the helmet. "Your group has great teamwork," she said in complete honesty. "With a bit more time, I know you'll be able to handle monsters like this with ease." They seemed like they could go far if they stuck together. She made a mental note to keep tabs on them even after their joint mission was over.

They all smiled wryly. Perhaps it was hard for them to imagine such a thing, or perhaps they were in slight shock over how strong Ainz had showed herself to be. _What would they have thought of my true self?_ she pondered.

* * *

When they made camp that night, the mood was cheerful.

Ainz had volunteered to set up the wooden rods around the campsite that would act as a warning system. She strung black silk thread between them, and tied it up with a bell by the tent. If something tripped the thread, it would be a really noisy alarm.

In addition, Ninya cast a spell called Alarm around the area to act as an extra precaution. This was one of the spells that didn't exist in Yggdrasil, and Ainz was deeply curious if she would be able to learn it. Part of the mission she had given everyone at Nazarick was to collect new spells that hadn't existed in the game.

After all the preparations were done, and the sun had nearly passed below the horizon, it was time to sit down and eat. Tonight's main dish was a stew with smoked and salted meat, accompanied by bread, dried figs, and various nuts.

Neither Ainz nor Lupusregina technically needed to eat, but she could, and she was curious. It wasn't like she'd had any local cooking yet, though it was uncertain to what extent this was a good representation of it. Still, she might as well go for it. Lupusregina would have to decide for herself.

She gently sat the bowl and spoon down, then reached up, and took off her helmet. Then picked the bowl back up.

"W-wha... a-a woman?" came a shocked voice from across the fire. Belonging to Nphirea.

 _Ah right_ , Ainz thought. Nphirea hadn't seen her face yet. "Yes," she said, and smiled sweetly. Not feeling like saying anything more about that right now, she instead focused on the stew.

"Ah, s-sorry, that was rude of me," Nphirea apologised. "I... I just assumed..."

Dyne chuckled. "So did we, so don't feel so bad about it," he said.

"You already knew?" Nphirea asked.

"Yeah, she took off her helmet when we had our first meeting," Lukrut said.

"She said it's intentional. People are less likely to bother a man, after all," Peter added.

"Ah, I see..." Nphirea seemed even more surprised than the Swords of Darkness had been.

Ainz was curious why, but right now she was happy to let the Swords explain the situation for her. The stew was actually quite good. Lupusregina had started eating too, after she had seen Ainz go for it.

The meal continued with light banter and conversation, of which Lupusregina casually joined in. Ainz was impressed by how easily she seemed to handle humans.

Though as she was about halfway through the bowl, there was something Ainz wanted to bring up: "By the way, why are you called the Swords of Darkness?" she asked them.

"Oh, that?" Lukrut smiled. "Well, it was Ninya who-"

"Please stop!" Ninya cut in. "It was a youthful mistake!"

"There nothing to be ashamed of," Dyne said jovially. "It's important to dream big!"

"Please just give me a break already..." Ninya said, sounding more than a little embarrassed.

"Oh-ho? What's this about then?" Lupusregina asked, perhaps enjoying the way Ninya was blushing.

"Um..." Peter spoke up. "The name comes from four swords that belonged to one of the Thirteen Heroes."

 _The Thirteen Heroes_. Ainz had heard of them, but not in much detail. All she knew was that they were a group of super-powerful heroes that had defeated evil spirits a couple of centuries ago. She certainly didn't know their names, or what gear they had used. Was that bad? She was unsure to what extent this was supposed to be common knowledge, and Peter wasn't elaborating.

"Hm? Who were they?" Lupusregina asked while Ainz was contemplating how to react.

The best word for the mood around the fire was unsettled. Apparently this was supposed to be common knowledge, or perhaps these swords in particular were so famous that it was strange that someone didn't know of them.

"You haven't heard of them, Regina-san? I guess they aren't talked of much in your country then," Peter said, which probably seemed like the only logical explanation for him. "Some people think of the Thirteen Heroes as evil, or that they couldn't possibly be human considering the unbelievable powers they are said to have possessed."

Ninya took over the explanation. "The Swords of Darkness belonged to one hero called the Black Knight. There's Demonic Sword: Killineiram, that gives off dark energy; Canker Sword: Coroquedavarre, that is said to cause wounds that never heal; Death Sword: Sufiz, that takes your life with even just a single scratch; and Evil Sword: Humiris, the special ability of which is unclear."

This tickled Ainz's brain. While the title of Black Knight was probably not entirely uncommon, these swords and their abilities intrigued her. The names didn't ring a bell, but she knew of someone who had abilities like that: Shalltear Bloodfallen.

One of Shalltear's classes was Cursed Knight, which had skills just like that. And to even acquire any levels in Cursed Knight, one needed a cumulative class level of 60. Meaning the Black Knight had to have been at least that strong. No wait, to get all of those abilities, they'd have to be at least level 70. Putting them above any of the Pleiades, unless you counted Sebas. Were the evil spirits they had battled just as strong? Nigun had claimed that disappointing angel he summoned had defeated an evil spirit, so maybe it was safer to assume that they came in all sorts of power levels.

Between that, and everything else she had learned so far, certain puzzle pieces were forming that she didn't like the look of.

"Our ultimate goal is to find those swords," Lukrut was saying to Lupusregina.

"Actually, I know of someone who has one of them," Nphirea suddenly said, dropping a bomb on Swords of Darkness team.

"W-wait really?"

"Who?!"

"There's only three left now?"

Nphirea shrank away a little. "It belongs to the leader of the Blue Roses."

"Aw, really? They're adamantite level, too... way out of our league," Lukrut lamented.

Ainz had heard of the Blue Roses. They were one of two adamantite teams in the Kingdom, and it was an all-women team at that. She'd be interested in meeting them some day.

"At least we know they're real," Dyne said, looking at the bright side.

"We'll just have to get strong enough to find the other three," Peter declared confidently. "Until then, we have these." He took out a small sheath, and drew a dagger from it. The blade was black, and there were four jewels inlaid in the handle.

"The idea is that these are our symbol until we get the real ones," Ninya said with a smile.

"Hey, maybe we should change our name to Blades of Darkness, so it won't matter if they're real or not," Lukrut suggested.

"For once you may have a point," Dyne said mirthfully, and then they all broke out in laughter.

They were clearly good friends, and Ainz had to smile at their camaraderie.

"Do all Adventurer teams get along this well?" Nphirea asked, also cheered up by the general mood.

"I believe so," Peter said. "We trust each other with our lives."

"Plus there are no girls on our team," Lukrut chimed in. "I've heard that only results in fighting."

"Oh?" Ainz said with a smirk. "Should Regina and I just leave then?" she teased.

"Uh..."

"Don't listen to him," Ninya said. "If we had girls on our team, he'd be the one causing trouble. But I think it has to do with our common goal."

The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

"I'm sure that's part of it," Ainz agreed. "It's amazing how different it feels when everyone's aims are aligned." This was making her rather nostalgic.

"You used to be part of a team, Varena-san?" Ninya asked her.

Ainz realised she may have let slip more than she intended there, but there was probably no harm in it. "We weren't really Adventurers, but... yes." She gazed upwards. "Back when I was weak and alone, a Holy Knight showed up and saved me. Via him I made four more friends, and then he picked up another three weaklings to go with us. That was my first party."

They had formed a Guild, just the nine of them, which became the forerunner to Ainz Woolfe Gown.

"They were wonderful comrades, and the best friends I could have hoped for. I shall never forget the time we spent together..." Ainz felt herself starting to get emotional. Such wonderful memories.

The campsite fell quiet for a while.

The one to break the silence was Ninya. "I hope some day you'll make great friends like that again, Varena-san," he said.

The mood changed immediately. "That day will never come," Ainz snapped. She could feel her annoyance quite keenly, but even so she was a little surprised at how strong her reaction had been. Yet just the idea that she could find someone equal to her Guildmates made her feel cold. "... Excuse me, I'm going to finish my meal over there," she said, and got up. The guilt on Ninya's face was evident, but Ainz wasn't able to make herself say something in response.

"I'll come with you," Lupusregina said, and got up to follow Ainz as she walked away. No one tried to stop them.

* * *

"I said something I shouldn't have..." Ninya said in a gloomy tone.

"Something must have happened," Dyne said.

"They are probably all gone," Peter said. "People who have lost all their comrades tend to give off that aura."

"That's a hard thing to deal with," Lukrut said solemnly.

"You can't take back what was said," Dyne told a dejected Ninya. "All you can do is take action to paint over it with something else."

"I'll aim to do that," Ninya said, but he hadn't cheered up at all. _I know the pain of losing loved ones. How could I have said something so thoughtless?_

Nphirea made an attempt at lightening the mood. "So... Varena-san's strength was pretty amazing to see today, huh?"

At least that got them onto another track, and they started discussing what they had seen instead. How strong someone would have to be to cut right through an ogre like that. The impressive state of her gear. Lupusregina's beauty.

"Varena-san looks older than all of us, so she must have been training for a lot longer than Peter has," Dyne said. "With time I'm sure you can reach the same level."

Peter didn't seem convinced, but he appreciated the sentiment.

"It was a little hard to see in the firelight, but does she have the skin as Regina?" Nphirea asked.

"Yeah, they said they've travelled a long way to get here," Ninya said.

"Did they say what country they're from?" Nphirea suddenly seemed a lot more fired up.

"No, we didn't get that specific," Peter said.

"Ah..." Nphirea seemed to register the odd looks the others were giving him. "It's just that if they're from another country, I was thinking they probably have different potions and such, you know, apothecary stuff." He explained.

"Right. Well, they look a bit similar, so it's possible they're family... it's hard to tell if Varena-san's old enough to be Regina's mother, but maybe her sister, or her aunt?" Peter speculated.

"I suppose there's a certain elegance to her, but I prefer Regina-chan's beauty," Lukrut said, and no one was surprised.

"But would she be saying -san if they were related?" Dyne pondered.

"It's not really our business. If they have a relationship they're hiding, I'm sure they have good reason to," Peter said, even though he had been one of the ones speculating.

"They have to be pretty wealthy, though," Lukrut sounded quite sure of that. "Varena-san's armour and weapons are certainly eye-catching, but Regina-chan's gear seems well-made too." Made sense he would notice that, though no one disagreed.

Soon the topic shifted to the plans for tomorrow, and wanting Nphirea to tell them a bit about Carne.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mostly minor changes here too, stuff that made sense with the different characters in mind.  
> And I ended up framing the battle a little differently. After doing the first draft of it, then checking the source material, I realised I had misremembered a few things, but decided I might as well keep a few things, even though I corrected a lot.  
> I know I could have cut the conversation at the end with just the Swords and Nphirea, but I wanted to include it.


	5. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finally reaching the village, Nphirea and Ainz get to see how things have changed since last time either of them were there. And the boy learns some shocking things.

* * * 

The next morning Ninya came over to Ainz to apologise. She could tell he meant it, but a bit of irritation was still smouldering beneath the surface.

She knew she should be better than this. After all, she was a grown woman. Who just happened to be stranded in another world, all alone, with none of her friends and family. And she might never see any of them ever again. Being reminded of that stung, which was why she had focused on the tasks that needed to be done rather than think about what had been.

Still, none of that was Ninya's fault. He couldn't have known, and his expression was genuinely a little heart-breaking.

Ainz sighed. "It's alright," she ended up saying. "You couldn't have known." Not that she suddenly felt okay, but taking it out on Ninya was absolutely not the right thing to do. Her friends and memories were really important to her, but this attitude was ultimately not helping anyone.

Ninya perked up a little, but everyone felt things were still a bit awkward as they kept moving. There wasn't a lot of chatter today, as no one seemed able to come up with anything to discuss.

"We're getting close to Carne now," Nphirea said. He was the only one who had been there, apart from Ainz. Though Ainz wasn't about to let anyone know that.

After another while of silence, Lukrut spoke up. "Hey, since the view is so nice, maybe we don't have to walk in such tight formation..." he said, though it was a little unclear what he meant. Maybe he was just looking for something, anything to say.

"No, it's important to stay on guard," Peter rebuked him.

"Carelessness is the greatest enemy," Dyne added as if he was speaking words of wisdom.

"And who knows, maybe a dragon will swoop out of nowhere and attack," Ninya said.

"A dragon? Where in the world did you get that idea?" Lukrut had to ask.

"There are legends around E-Rantel of a dragon who could control natural disasters," Ninya said in response. Maybe he also had just been reaching for something to say.

"That was a long time ago, though," Peter said. "You wouldn't get dragons these days... oh wait, there's said to still be frost dragons living in the Azerlisia mountains, but I think that's really far north of here."

There are dragons in this world? Ainz felt wary. In Yggdrasil dragons had been one of the most powerful races around. Both their attack and defence powers were high, they had seemingly infinite HP, could cast all sorts of spells, and had all sorts of abilities. They were practically overpowered. Even full raid groups had trouble taking one of them down.

The Sunlit Scripture prisoners had talked of dragons as the strongest creatures in this world, but without verification she had only been able to assume those were mere myths. Hearing it from the Swords of Darkness as well lent a little more credence to the idea. If they truly existed in this world, she'd have to be on her guard for them.

"Do you know the name of the dragon who could control natural disasters?" Ainz asked, still feeling a little awkward, but it was a chance to jump in. She still remembered the name of each of the really strong dragons from Yggdrasil, at least well enough to recognise one if she heard it, and was curious whether it might match one of those.

"Uh, no, sorry," Ninya said. "But I can look it up when we get back to town!" he hastily added.

"If you have the time, then that would be appreciated, Ninya-san," Ainz said, smiling under the helmet.

"Y-yes, Varena-san," Ninya said. The mood felt like it had finally lightened up.

* * *

They finally crested the last ridge before Carne came into view.

"There it-" Nphirea started to say something, but suddenly went quiet. Everyone looked at the village, and at him.

"Is something wrong, Nphirea-san?" Peter asked.

"Huh? No, it's just... there didn't used to be such a sturdy-looking fence there before," Nphirea said, sounding a little worried.

Ainz also knew there hadn't been one there before, but after what had happened, she didn't blame the villagers for constructing one.

The Swords of Darkness took Nphirea at his word that this was strange, and got a bit more cautious in their approach. There were other things that seemed odd as well, not just the fence. Like how there were no people to be seen in the fields.

As they got close to the gate, Lukrut suddenly raised his hand as if he'd heard something. A small group of creatures suddenly ran up from behind the fence, and blocked entry to the village.

"Aren't those goblins?" Lukrut said, pulling out his bow.

The goblins readied their own weapons, one of them aiming an arrow towards them before Lukrut was able to draw one of his own.

"Who the hell are you guys?" one of them demanded.

And before the Swords of Darkness could make a move, a bunch more goblins sprang up from the fields around them. Both archers and fighters. They were completely surrounded, and these goblins seemed different from the ones they had fought yesterday. They had a professional air about them, they were in much better physical condition, and their gear seemed to be equal (or better) of what Peter's team had.

Ainz put out a hand to stay Lupusregina. She recognised these goblins as the ones that got summoned by the goblin horns she had given to the girls. That meant it was best to avoid hostilities with them. She tried to count the goblins, to see whether they had used both horns, or just one of them.

"Put down your weapons," said a goblin who stepped forth. He seemed like he might be their leader. "We would rather not fight you if we don't have to," he clarified. "Especially not the full-plate guy. You give off a very dangerous feeling." He pointed his sword towards Ainz.

"Don't worry. So long as you don't attack, we don't intend to make a move," Ainz assured them.

"That's a big help. Now if you could just wait here until our Lady arrives," the goblin said.

It wasn't like they had much choice, but it was easy to tell that Nphirea was giving off very angry vibes. But before he could say something, someone else stepped into view.

"What's going on, goblin-san?" a youthful female voice asked.

"Enri!" Nphirea suddenly shouted.

"Huh?" the girl looked up at all of them, and her expression lit up. "Nphirea!" She sounded delighted to see him.

That's the one, Ainz thought, remembering the girl. Wait, she had mentioned a pharmacist friend. It truly was a small world.

* * *

As everyone entered the village, and got settled in, Nphirea went off with Enri to hear about what had happened.

She told him of the attack, of everyone lost, including her parents. Nphirea wanted to comfort her, but didn't know how.

Then she talked about their mysterious saviour, Ainz Woolfe Gown. The powerful caster who had saved Enri and her sister by killing the two knights chasing them. And then went on to save the rest of the village alongside her companion, and a powerful monster she summoned.

The goblins had been her doing as well, as she gave a couple of horns to Enri and her sister, and blowing on them made the goblins appear. Since they did anything Enri told them to, she had gotten them to start helping out around the village.

Nphirea had never heard of Ainz Woolfe Gown before, which seemed odd to him. A caster that powerful, that close to E-Rantel, yet word hadn't spread? Carrying items that could revolutionise all magic theory? So he asked Enri for any details that might help him think of who it could be.

There wasn't really a lot she hadn't already told him, but then she mentioned the potion she'd been given. Which shook Nphirea to the core. What were the odds that two people in the same area had healing potions unlike anything found in the entire country?

"So you're sure it was a woman?" Nphirea asked. Enri had said that Gown wore a mask, after all.

"The voice was a bit deep, but it still sounded like a woman's," Enri answered.

"I see..." Nphirea said, wondering if his hunch was really true, then Enri dropped another bomb:

"Isn't it marvellous that they were women, both her and Albedo-sama?"

* * * 

Ainz ended up wandering around the village, seeing how things had changed. She hadn't been here personally since that day, though she'd had some of her minions keep an eye on the place.

Lupusregina followed along as Ainz walked up a hill to get a proper view of the place. Down below they could see a newly constructed archery range, where the goblin archers were teaching the villagers how to use bows. The bows themselves looked rather shabby, as if they'd cobbled them together themselves, yet they drew back the strings with surprising unison, and let loose their arrows. Not a single one missed its mark.

"Not bad," Ainz said.

"You really mean that?" Lupusregina said, not sounding especially convinced.

Ainz looked down at her, then back at the range. "Well, it's true their skill and technique isn't amazing. But none of these people had even held a bow until ten days ago. Yet there they are. They had friends, family, and loved ones killed, and now they're working to make sure it doesn't happen again. The next time they will fight. Don't you find that worth praising?"

"When you put it like that, I see that you're right. I didn't think that far," Lupusregina said, and bowed her head in deference.

Ainz had to smile as she watched the villagers. How much stronger would these people be able to get? And was she able to get any stronger herself? Back in Yggdrasil she had been level 100. The absolute max. Was the 'cap' higher here? Would she be able to reach 101 or beyond? Could she still learn to grow? Part of her feared that the answer was no. That even if she learned more spells, more skills, she would never get any stronger than this. Perhaps these people would one day surpass her. But only time would tell. If she couldn't improve in strength, she'd find other things to learn.

Her mind drifted to the puzzle pieces she didn't like the look of. With everything she'd learned from the captives, from E-Rantel, and from their conversations on the road, certain conclusions could be drawn. Or at least they counted as hypotheses.

There was a high possibility that the Thirteen Heroes of two hundred years ago had been players. And the same could be said of the Slane Theocracy's Six Great Gods of six hundred years ago. Though she had no idea why there had been such a huge gap between their arrivals. Did that mean that her guildmates might have arrived long ago? Or could arrive at some point in the future? Had only Nazarick been put here at this particular time? The idea raised another potential problem.

Virtually everyone at Nazarick was either immortal, or extremely long-lived. It was certainly possible that other players who had arrived before had similar abilities, and thus could still be alive. They would have had time to learn about the world, and solidify their power bases. Train followers through some sort of power-levelling, perhaps. Raise an army. But then... why hadn't any of them taken over the world?

The Slane Theocracy seemed especially likely to attempt something like that, if they had the power of max-level players on their side. But they hadn't. Why not? Was there some equivalent power out there holding them in check? Was level 100 not that powerful in this world? Too many questions, too few answers. That was another problem with interrogating captives, as well. If you didn't know the right questions to ask, you wouldn't get the answers you needed.

In a way Ainz almost regretted saving this village. Being on amicable terms with the Theocracy might have been useful, but not only had she committed a hostile act against them, it was quite possible her name had reached back to whomever was in charge down there. Future relations would be strained, at best. So it might be better to direct her efforts towards gaining allies in the Kingdom or Empire.

All she knew was that she needed to be on guard. It would be foolish of her to think that the Theocracy wouldn't make some sort of response to her actions. The question was what.

* * * 

"Varena-san!"

A voice called out to her, shaking her out of her thoughts. She looked towards the source, and saw Nphirea come running towards her. Is there some emergency again? This village, I swear...

"Is something the matter?" Ainz asked Nphirea as he got close, and was trying to catch his breath.

"Varena-san... are you... are you Ainz Woolfe Gown-san?" the boy asked.

Ainz didn't know what to say, as that was just about the last thing she expected to hear.

She realised she should have said no, but before she got that far, Nphirea appeared to have interpreted her hesitation as confirmation. "Thank you so much for saving this village, Gown-san," he said.

"W-wait, I'm not..."

Nphirea nodded. "I understand you're hiding your true name for some reason, but I really wanted to thank you. This village is important to me, so... thank you very much!" He bowed his head.

Ainz sighed. "Raise your head."

Nphirea looked up, and then his smile faded. "Oh, and actually... there's also something I've been hiding from you..." he said, sounding a little nervous.

"Regina, could you leave us for a moment?" Ainz said, though it sounded less like a question, and more like a command.

"Uh, sure..." Lupusregina said, and walked off. Though she shot Nphirea a brief glare as she left.

Once she was out of earshot, Ainz looked back at Nphirea.

"Ah... actually... the red potion you gave the lady at the inn... it's very rare, and can't be created by normal methods," Nphirea said, still seeming nervous. "I wanted to know what kind of person had those, and how to create them. That's why I made the request."

"I see." Ainz wanted to rub her forehead. So many small mistakes leading to this large screw-up. All because she didn't know enough about this world and its ways. But it was too late to regret her actions now. She had acted as best she could, based on what she knew at the time. There was no way she could have known it was wrong. So she needed to learn more to avoid mistakes in the future. But realistically she would keep making errors. This was just the first time it came back to bite her in the ass.

"I'm very sorry!" Nphirea said.

"Hm? It's not like you did anything wrong," Ainz said, unsure of why he was apologising. The mistakes had been hers, for him it made sense to have done what he did.

"Huh?"

"You were just trying to set up a connection with me, right? I don't see what's so wrong about that." It made sense that he wouldn't have opened with that pitch. If she had been in the same situation, she would have also wanted to learn what sort of person she was dealing with before getting down to business.

"Well... I..."

"If you learned how to make such a potion, what were you planning to do with that information?" she asked.

"Huh? I-I didn't really think that far ahead," he admitted. "As a pharmacist, I just wanted to know. My curiosity got ahead of me."

Ainz could relate to that sentiment. "Hm... so long as you didn't have any nefarious plan in mind, I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to know."

"Wow... um... that's... very understanding of you..." Nphirea sounded genuinely amazed, and the look of admiration he gave her made Ainz feel a little awkward.

Though there was something important she had to ask. "Have you told anyone that I'm Ainz?"

"No, I haven't told anyone," Nphirea said sincerely.

"I appreciate that," Ainz said, suppressing a sigh of relief. "Right now I'm just an adventurer named Varena. I'd be thankful if you didn't forget that."

Nphirea nodded. "I expected that was how you'd prefer it. I probably made things awkward for you, but I really wanted to express my gratitude. Thank you once again!"

"Okay, that's more than enough," Ainz said. Awkward was the right word for it. "I just happened to be there," she said honestly. It had been pure chance, and had turned into something quite complicated.

"If you say so," Nphirea said, still smiling. "Oh, and we'll be heading into the forest in an hour," he added before going back down to the village.

* * * 

As soon as Nphirea was out of sight again, Lupusregina rushed forth, and bowed deeply. "I'm deeply sorry, Ainz-sama!"

"Eesh, raise your head. Someone might see us," Ainz said. Thankfully Lupusregina listened. "It's not entirely your fault, but dropping Albedo's name was a big slip-up." Ainz sighed.

"I'm ready to give up my life as penance," Lupusregina declared. She may seem more carefree than the other Pleiades, but at her core she was as devoted as any of them.

"That's not necessary," Ainz said quickly. "Everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them, and to not make the same mistake twice." The gods knew she'd made a lot herself. "All is forgiven, Lupusregina Beta."

"Thank you, Ainz-sama! I shall endeavour to not repeat any past mistakes," Lupusregina said.

Ainz glanced down towards the village proper again. "Do not worry too much. My mission has not failed yet. But we need to be careful with that boy. It may become necessary to do away with him." As much as she disliked the idea, she knew where her priorities had to lie.

"I could do so right now," Lupusregina offered.

Ainz chuckled. "We can't fail this job. It would negatively impact our reputation." She felt an urge to bite something, as a stress relief of sorts. "We'll get him back safely, and then consider what action we want to take." Pissing off his grandmother didn't seem like a great idea either. What a mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I basically chopped out everything that was about Nphirea wanting to be "A Real Man", and obsessing over Enri. I kept hints of it still in, but honestly that part of the story holds no appeal to me. Writing romance and relationships is not one of Maruyama's strengths as far as I'm concerned, but not everyone is good at everything. What he does well, he does quite well indeed.  
> This one went a little bit shorter, because it was a little awkward to decide on a good break point for things here. I could have kept going until they were back in the city, but I don't want to let any one chapter run too long. I'd rather cut them a little short.


	6. And Back Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Wise King of the Forest makes an appearance during their outing, but is subdued by Ainz. With such a magnificent haul, the group return to E-Rantel to wrap things up and receive their reward.

* * *

"This is where we're entering the forest," Nphirea said. "I'm trusting you to keep me safe." The size of some of these trees was impressive. It was clearly an old forest. "We'll be entering the Wise King of the Forest's territory, so there shouldn't be many monsters to worry about. In fact, it's strange we encountered those ogres yesterday... maybe something is going on." He turned towards Ainz. "Varena-san, should the Wise King appear, please chase him off without killing him."

"Why do you say that?" Ainz inquired. She'd heard some tidbits, but she'd like confirmation.

Nphirea gazed back into the woods. "The reason monsters haven't attacked Carne until now is because the Wise King keeps them out of his territory. If you defeat him, it will put Carne, and the rest of the area, at risk."

"Look, even Varena-san can't-" Lukrut started to say something, but Ainz cut him off.

"I understand," she said. The others' shock at her confident statement was evident, but she was more focused on the Wise King. _Very interesting_ , if he was truly so powerful as to repel all other monsters. "But if they show up, Regina and I may have to fight with all we've got. I'll be counting on you Swords of Darkness to escape with Nphirea-san."

"We won't let you down, Varena-san," Peter said.

"We shall attempt to send them packing, but if they refuse to back off, it may become a them or us scenario," Ainz continued.

Nphirea looked a little worried, but with that agreed upon, the boy showed them the types of herbs they were looking for. It didn't look like anything special to Ainz, but Dyne recognised it as ngunak. They could probably count on him to help the rest of them find it. Ninya and Lukrut also seemed like they had heard of it.

"I'll confess that plants are not my forte, but I'll ask Dyne if I'm unsure," Ainz said. Might as well be open about her shortcomings, rather than try to bluff when it was unnecessary. Whether Lupusregina thought anything about a Supreme Being admitting they were not omniscient, she didn't make any indication either way.

This seemed like an okay plan, and they all set out into the woods. They were heading for a clearing Nphirea was familiar with, so he had explained to Lukrut how to get there.

The party were talking about this herb, and its importance in potion-making. Nphirea boasted about how he and his grandmother used all-natural ingredients, which gave a ten percent boost to their potions' effectiveness. This all went a little over Ainz's head, as in Yggdrasil potion-making had been as simple as having the required class and skill, and synthesising it from the right components. The Nazarick stores likely had some of those components, and there were characters there with potion-making skills, but they didn't have any way of replenishing those stores. If she could obtain the secret of this world's potion-making, that would be a great boon.

Then her thoughts drifted to the subject of the Wise King. Defeating such a beast would likely be a big boost to her reputation, and would maybe accelerate her rank quicker. Capturing them, or (assuming they were intelligent enough) getting them to join her cause could be very helpful to Nazarick's future efforts. She could dispatch some minions to act as guard detail in the woods to do basically the same job as the Wise King was doing now. With that, her mind was made up.

"May I make a proposal?" Ainz spoke up.

"Go ahead, Varena-san," Nphirea replied.

"Regina has spells to detect threats, similar to Alarm, so would it be okay if we scouted the area on our own once we got to the clearing?"

Everyone suddenly looked a little worried that they'd be without their strongest companions, but Nphirea still said: "So long as you don't stay away for too long, that should be fine."

"We'll be quick," Varena said with a smile they couldn't see. "And should you need us..." she reached into her bag, and extracted a small bell. "Just ring this." She handed it over to Nphirea. "We'll come back immediately." It had a limited range, but she would be able to hear it clearly at least within a kilometre's radius. Nphirea looked a little less anxious.

She idly wondered if she could make something along the same principle for her guardians, that would work at any range. Just a small alarm sound to say they needed help right away. She would drop everything, and teleport right to them immediately. But it might not be possible. Also, they'd probably insist they didn't need them, but that she and her guards should definitely carry them at all times.

"Ninya-san, do you know of any spell that would let us keep track of each other's location, just for extra safety?" Ainz asked.

"That would be handy, but I haven't heard of anything like that, unfortunately," Ninya replied.

"I see. Let's hope the bell suffices, then," Ainz said.

Though she noticed Ninya was eyeing it curiously. "Are those common in your country, Varena-san?" the young mage asked. "I've never seen one before."

Ainz wondered how careful she should be about how she answered that. "I'm not sure I'd say they're common, but they're not quite rare either." Which was absolutely true, as it was an Uncommon quality item. It was useful for exploration dungeons and areas, when they were split into several groups. Only the person it was linked to would hear it, so it wouldn't break stealth for their group.

As they got deeper into the woods, Ainz found herself marvelling at the majesty of this old, unspoiled forest. There had been nothing like this in Yggdrasil, and the forests around her home had not been this grand. _Blue Planet probably would have loved this_. She thought about one of her old guildmates, who loved the outdoors. As such, he didn't play quite as much as the others, but he was still a valued member of the Guild.

You could almost say it was eerily quiet, though. A keen sense of hearing was one of her passive skills as a werewolf (and after getting here, she had discovered that extended to sight and smell as well), but the sounds of birds and animals all seemed to be far away.

She kept a curious eye on Lukrut. He was walking cautiously, but didn't seem like he was detecting anything nearby.

 _Except there is something_. Ainz thought with a smile about the person that had been tailing them ever since they entered the forest.

Everyone, except two, was feeling nervous as they walked through the woods, but finally they arrived at their destination. The clearing looked like it was about 50 metres across. They set down their packs, and started getting ready to gather. While Ainz and Lupusregina got ready to set out on their own.

"We'll be tying a rope to this tree so we don't get lost. Should anything prevent you from using the bell, tug on the rope instead," Ainz told them.

After making sure that everyone understood, they headed back in between the trees. In another 50 metres or so, they were running out of rope.

"This should be good," Ainz said, and stopped. "Let's have a quick meeting about how to boost my reputation."

Lupusregina gave Ainz an odd look, but from above they heard a voice: "I'm ready and present!"

The werewolf maid spun around, and went for her weapon, but then relaxed. "Eeesh, Aura-sama, don't scare me like that."

"Heehee, sorry," Aura said, not sounding very sorry at all.

"Aura. I'm tasking you with finding this Wise King of the Forest, and sending them my way. Defeating such a renowned beast is sure to get the rumours of my strength going."

"Of course, Ainz-sama!" Aura replied, as obediently as any other guardian. Which in a way seemed weirder coming from her, than any of the others.

"They say it's a beast with silver fur, the tail of a snake, and four legs," Ainz explained.

"I think I know who you mean," Aura said. "I'll get right on it!"

"Excellent," Ainz said. "Oh, and how is progress on your other orders?" She'd set tasks for all the guardians to work on before she left for E-Rantel.

"My Lord." Aura got down on one knee to deliver her report. "Scouting the woodlands is progressing nicely, and we think we've found a suitable area for the stockpile. However, construction is going to take some time."

"Understood. Take the time you need to make it as solid as possible, and set up defences so it won't fall to an attack," Ainz instructed her. "I have faith in you. Now go."

"Yes, Ainz-sama!" Aura said, before leaping off through the trees.

Ainz and Lupusregina started on their way back. "Ainz-sama, wasn't defeating the ogres enough to demonstrate your strength?"

"This is on an entirely different level," Ainz said. "Words of such a deed are sure to spread much faster and wider than just cutting some ogres in half."

"Brilliant thinking, Ainz-sama. I hadn't thought of that," Lupusregina said, seeming proud of her master.

Ainz wasn't used to this kind of praise, nor how to respond to it, but... it felt a little good nonetheless.

* * *

After they'd spent a short while collecting herbs, there was suddenly a disturbance. They could hear flocks of birds scattering from the treetops, and Lukrut put his ear to the ground.

"Something's coming. Something big," he said.

All of the Swords of Darkness grabbed their weapons and assumed combat stances, and Ainz grabbed her axes as well. Seems like Aura had done her job.

"Is it the Wise King of the Forest?" Ninya asked in a nervous voice.

"I can't tell," Lukrut said. "But whatever it is, it's coming right for us."

"Withdraw," Ainz said in a calm voice. "I'm leaving Nphirea-san in your care. We'll hold it off, and join you when we can."

"Understood," Peter said. The lot of them quickly scooped up the herbs they'd collected.

"Don't push yourself too hard, Varena-san," Nphirea said, and then they retreated.

Ainz watched them go, then turned back towards the approaching threat. "Now we have no witnesses, so how can we let them know it was definitely the Wise King? Do you think I should cut off a leg or something?" she idly asked Lupusregina. Maybe she could carry the whole thing back, if it came to that.

"Ainz-sama!" Lupusregina said sharply. They were no longer alone. A large shadow was watching them from between the trees, but with the lack of light they couldn't tell what it looked like.

Something came flying out, and Ainz instinctively crossed her axes in front of her. Whatever it was struck the large heads, with a screech like metal grinding against metal. It actually pushed her back a little before she managed to deflect it. She could see what looked like a tail covered in scales pulling back. So it could use that like a whip? That could be a pain to deal with.

"A marvellous job blocking my first attack, that it was."

 _That it was?_ Ainz wondered if whatever magic was responsible for translating speech to her was hiccuping.

"This is my territory, intruders. But out of respect for your strength, I shall not give chase if you leave immediately. What say you?" The voice was resonating strangely among the trees, so it was hard to tell where it was coming from.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I have much to gain from defeating you, and I'm not scared away that easily," Ainz stated boldly. "But are you perhaps afraid to show yourself? Or are you just shy?"

"Such brave words, that they are," the voice replied. "Very well, intruder. I shall let you gaze upon my majestic form!" There was movement to Ainz's side, as bushes and trees were pushed to the side to reveal the large magical beast.

"What the..." Ainz uttered in amazement.

"I sense your terror and astonishment under that helmet, that I can," the beast said, and showed a wicked smile. Its fur was more of a snow white than silver, with strange magical-looking markings on its body, which was as big as a horse. The tail was definitely serpentine, and it wriggled about. But more importantly the beast was very... round.

"Um... excuse me, but... what species of creature are you?" Ainz had to ask. Because it was definitely bringing something to mind.

"I am known only as the Wise King of the Forest. No other name, that I haven't," the beast said proudly.

"Are... aren't you a djungarian hamster?" The Wise King was certainly right that Ainz was astonished, but not in the way they might expect.

There was a bit of silence from the giant ball of fluff, then a "Hmmm... I have always lived alone, so I have, and cannot answer your question. You know my kind?" The Wise King sounded intrigued.

"You could say that... I have a friend who had a pet that looked just like you," Ainz said, recalling the guildmate who hadn't logged on for a week after his hamster died. It hadn't been as big, nor did she know of any hamster with a tail like that. But otherwise it was the spitting image.

"A pet?" The Wise King sounded offended, and puffed their cheeks. "Still, I would like to know more, that I would. If there are more of my kind out there, it would be important to propagate the species."

"I'm afraid it was much smaller than you, so I don't think that would be possible," Ainz said apologetically, but couldn't help wonder how big the babies of a creature like this would be. And how fluffy.

"I see... that's a shame, so it is," the Wise King said, dejected. But a determined look returned to their eyes. "Then we should cease this useless chatter, and fight for our very lives, that we should!" The resonating voice was back, and the hamster showed their claws.

Though Ainz's heart wasn't really in it. A fight against a giant hamster couldn't exactly be described as epic, and what would the Swords of Darkness think if she presented this body as the Wise King of the Forest? Would they even buy it? Sure, the creature was big, but it was a ball of fluff. Hardly what someone would think grand and impressive. Very cute, though.

"Regina, stand back," Ainz said. "I'm not fighting a giant hamster with backup." Plus she had already realised her best option was to subdue the beast. Lupusregina might kill it on impulse. Even if that wasn't the case... yeah, fighting something like this was already a bit embarrassing.

"I don't mind if you both come at me at once, that I don't," the Wise King boasted. "I shall show no mercy should you regret your words, that I won't."

With that said, the Wise King launched their attack, opening with a full body slam. Rolling into a ball, and hitting Ainz head-on. Anyone regular of her size would have likely been flattened, but she stood her ground, and used a single axe to block the attack, while striking with the other. She wasn't going all-out, but she was still surprised at how quickly the beast reacted, and blocked the blow with one of their legs.

Next came a strike from its front claws, and Ainz blocked the same way, before striking again. This time the blow glanced off of the Wise King's fur. _So it's not just fluff?_ Interesting, but a little disappointing. She wanted to bury her face in the thing, and if it was hard like metal, that wouldn't be a very pleasant experience.

She realised she was spacing out in the middle of combat, when the Wise King let out a pained yell. This time Ainz's strike had connected enough to draw blood. The scent of it filled the air, and the hamster rapidly leapt away, and back-pedalled to a safe distance. It was quite a sight to behold. "Blindness!" they called out, and one of the markings on its body lit up as the spell was cast. Interesting effect, but the spell itself was too low level to do anything to Ainz. Another of her passives nullified any low-level spells and effects.

The follow-up to the spell came immediately, as the tail lashed out like earlier. Ainz moved to block it in the same way, but this time the tail changed direction mid-flight, and got past her guard to strike the armour. She wasn't able to react fast enough to block it, but the strength of the blow wasn't sufficient to do any damage anyway.

"Now we're one for one, so we are," the Wise King said. "A powerful warrior, that you are."

"You think I'm just a warrior?" Ainz asked.

"What else would you be, hmm? A knight, perhaps?"

Ainz again felt a little disappointed. It didn't seem like the Wise King's wisdom amounted to much. She sighed, and lowered the axe-heads into the ground with a thud.

"What's this? Giving up?" the Wise King asked. "Take this seriously, that you must! We shall fight to the death, that we shall!"

There was really no desire to keep this going on Ainz's side, though. "Look... you're too cute for this, and I have to move on." She raised one of the axes, and pointed it at the Wise King. "Fear, level 1." She could still use some skills and spells in the armour, just not a lot. Fear came in many tiers, and had a chance of insta-killing an enemy at its higher ranks. But based on the Wise King's performance in that battle, she judged this should be sufficient.

A dark flash occurred at the tip of the axe, and the Wise King's fur stood on end, before they fell over. "I surrender. It's my loss, so it is," the giant hamster said in a trembling voice.

Ainz put the axes back, and walked over to the fluff ball. She patted them gently, and to her relief the fur seemed soft enough to the touch.

"Are you killing it? If so, I'd like its pelt," came the voice of Aura from above.

Ainz looked up, then back at the trembling creature. "I'm going to need you to swear allegiance to me, if you want to live," she said in a commanding tone. "My real name is Ainz Woolfe Gown."

* * *

After explaining enough of the situation to the Wise King, Ainz had taken them out of the forest, to meet with the others. Everyone seemed relieved to see Ainz and Lupusregina, then a little apprehensive as they noticed the Wise King behind them.

"This is the Wise King of the Forest," Ainz introduced them. "I subdued them, and they follow me now. Don't worry, I have complete command, so they won't be going on any rampage." She gently patted the fur, and sort of wished she could take her gauntlet off. That didn't seem appropriate right now, though.

Everyone's jaws had dropped as the giant hamster stepped out into the light. They had even drawn their weapons.

"Right you are, master!" The Wise King confirmed. "I, the Wise King of the Forest, will follow my master and do her bidding, that I will. I swear to not cause you any trouble."

Everyone seemed a little relieved at hearing that, though Ainz still wondered if they would truly believe a giant, adorable ball of fluff was the legendary Wise King. But...

"Wow, so that's the Wise King of the Forest? What a magnificent magical beast," Ninya exclaimed.

"Eh?" Ainz wondered if she'd heard wrong, or if Ninya was being sarcastic, but he seemed completely sincere.

"The Wise King of the Forest... such an apt name," Dyne said, full of admiration. "Even from here I can sense their might."

Ainz looked at the Wise King, and wondered if they were seeing something different from what she was. The beast was big, but it was still a hamster. Did... did they not have hamsters here?

"We would have stood no chance against a magical beast like that," Peter said, and sounded like he believed it. "It would have been a massacre. You are truly amazing, Varena-san."

With her mind truly boggled, Ainz looked over towards Lupusregina. "W-what do you think, Regina?"

"Their eyes certainly seem to gleam with power," Lupusregina said with a smile, and she appeared to be serious too.

"But they're so cute and fluffy..." Ainz muttered in disbelief, not understanding how the others could see the Wise King as intimidating in any way. She petted the hamster again just in case that would reveal some illusion she wasn't seeing.

"Um... Varena-san?" Nphirea spoke up suddenly. "If you take the Wise King away, won't that put Carne in danger?"

Ainz looked to the Wise King to answer. "Carne is that village? It's certainly possible, so it is, but something is happening in the forest. So even if I stayed, I could not guarantee their safety, that I couldn't."

"I... I see..." Nphirea seemed a bit deflated. The boy seemed to having an intense internal struggle, and Ainz watched him with interest. The Swords of Darkness were pondering ways to ensure the safety of the village, which was something Ainz had intended to do anyway, but she wasn't saying anything yet. She was curious where this was going, first.

"Varena-san!" Nphirea seemed to have come to some conclusion, and his determination was clear.

"Yes?" She had several things in mind for how to deal with this so that she could come out even further ahead. Earning some gratitude for something she was going to do anyway couldn't hurt.

"Please let me join your team!" Nphirea declared, to everyone's surprise.

"Huh?" Of all the things she could have imagined the boy saying, that was not even remotely one of them.

"I want to protect Carne, and Enri, but I don't have enough strength. I want to get stronger, and I want you to teach me even a sliver of your strength! I'm confident in my skills as a pharmacist, and I can carry your bags! I promise to make myself useful! I'll do whatever you ask, so please... I beg of you."

"So you want to become a stronger caster, and protect Carne?" Ainz wanted to make sure she was understanding him correctly.

"Yes," Nphirea answered, with a look of strong determination.

Ainz considered this boy. Back in Yggdrasil she was no stranger to people wanting to join the Guild for their own personal gain. Hoping the Guild would raise their status, and earn them powerful gear and items. Or even looking to steal intelligence on their most powerful secrets. Yet here was this boy, with his strong, innocent desire to protect what he cared about.

A light chuckle turned into a mirthful laugh. She removed her helmet, and smiled fondly at Nphirea, before bowing her head respectfully to him. She heard a gasp from Lupusregina as she did so.

She straightened back up, and saw that Nphirea was as stunned by her response, as she had been by his request. "Aha, I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing at your determination. But unfortunately you only fulfil one of the two conditions to join my team, so I can't admit you." She saw the boy deflate again, but she wasn't done. "I will say that I understand your feelings, and I will remember them. As for Carne, I have some ideas for how to protect the village, but I may need your hel-"

"Yes, of course!" Nphirea said immediately.

Ainz chuckled again. "That's settled then. We'll talk more about that later. For now, let's finish our task." She looked at the Wise King. "In fact, I have an idea..."

* * *

After spending the night at Carne, they headed back to E-Rantel. This time they left early enough to get back to the city without spending the night on the road, but it was basically dark by the time they arrived.

They parted ways not far into the city. Ainz had to go register the Wise King with the Adventurer's Guild, while the Swords of Darkness would go ahead with Nphirea, and unload the herbs at the shop. With the Wise King's help, they had gathered enough that Nphirea had agreed to give them a bonus. Ainz would join them once the registration was done.

She had finally decided on the name for the Wise King. Her ideas had been stuff like Fluffball, Creampuff, or Socks. She'd used to get teased by her friends for how bad she was at naming things, but she had the eternal comfort that at least she was better than Touch Me. In the end she had gone with Mitten. That sounded like it might be a real name, probably. More importantly she thought it was so cute she might cry.

So now she was riding through the streets on Mitten's back. It was honestly a bit embarrassing, but everyone they passed seemed really impressed at the sight. That certainly helped Ainz feel better about it all, and she could relax a bit. In spite of her own feelings, everyone else seemed to think Mitten was an impressive magical beast. Ainz considered them impressive in her own, but certainly not in the same way other people were reacting.

"Do you really think they can be trusted?" Lupusregina asked, referring to the Swords of Darkness.

"I believe so, but even if they were to betray us, it would just be for the ogres and goblins. It seems unlikely they would bother, and we're getting paid for the main job regardless." Ainz had pondered that a bit herself, and judged it a non-issue. "I wouldn't make a fuss over such a petty sum, anyway. Appearing greedy wouldn't be good for our reputation."

In truth they could probably use every little bit they could get, but appearances were important.

"I see," Lupusregina said. "It would be unseemly for a Supreme Being to bother with such a trifle. I hadn't thought that far. My apologies, Ai- Varena-san."

 _We're back at that, are we?_ At least the Guild was coming into sight now, so they could get this over with.

* * *

Nphirea parked the cart around the back of the shop.

"Could you help me carry the herbs inside?" he asked the Swords of Darkness as he went to open the door.

"Sure thing," Peter said, and all four of them got started.

As he headed inside to unlock the storeroom, something struck Nphirea as odd. His grandmother was getting on in her years, but her eyes and ears were still sharp. He had thought she would have heard them coming. Was she out? That was somewhat rare, especially this late. It had to have been something important in that case. Well, maybe she was just so engrossed in her potion-making that she had lost track of the outside world. That wasn't without precedent.

Once all the herbs were unloaded, Nphirea invited the group to have something to drink while they waited for Varena. Hopefully the registration would go smooth. Something as grand as the Wise King of the Forest might require some extra procedure, or at least Nphirea imagined as much. Not being a Guild member meant he wouldn't actually know.

But as they approached the door leading further into the shop, it opened.

"Oh, _there_ you are! Welcome _home_!" An attractive woman with golden hair came out of the door, but while she looked cute enough, Nphirea could tell there was something off about her. Beyond the fact that she was not supposed to be there. "I was _sooo_ worried about you, seeing as you were just gone. What horrible timing. I had to wait _all_ this time." Her strides towards them were casual, but confident.

"Uh... um... w-who might you be?" Nphirea asked, unable to stop a slight tremor from entering his voice.

"Wait, you don't know her?!" Peter sounded shocked and alarmed. Considering how familiar the woman was acting, the Swords of Darkness might have expected them to be acquaintances.

"Hm?" The woman started giggling. "Oh, I'm here to kidnap you. We need your help for a little ritual, you see. Dreadful stuff, creating an undead army, but what is life without some excitement, hmm?"

Peter and his group drew their weapons, and got in front of Nphirea. "Ninya, take Nphirea-san and flee. This woman is confident she can kill us all with ease, and I think she may be right." For someone admitting he was about to die, he sounded quite calm. "We'll buy you whatever time we can, just go quickly."

"Flee? No no, that won't do," the woman said gleefully. "I want to play!"

They heard the door on the other end of the room smack shut. "That's enough playing around," came a man's voice. He was wearing a red robe, and his skin was ghastly pale.

"Awww... can't I take my time with even one of them? You have the magical wards in place, don't you?"

Nphirea and the Swords realised they were trapped between the two. Then the boy remembered. _The bell_. He quickly reached for his pouch, and managed to pull it out. _Please let it reach_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I wrote in the bell, I thought it was just a cool little extra. At the time I didn't have the scene at the shop in mind, and wondered if I'd have to go back and remove the bell. Yet in the end I decided to roll with it, and think up a different reason for why Ainz didn't get there in time.  
> Though based on Clementine's words in the book, it's likely that even if Ainz had reacted to the bell, she wouldn't have arrived in time to save anyone's life.


	7. Plans Interrupted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After registering the Wise King of the Forest with the Adventurer's Guild, Ainz headed to the Balear Apothecary Shop to find a ghastly scene. With a fury burning in her chest, she discovered and sought out the location of the culprits.

* * *

The registration process had taken longer than expected, and Ainz was anxious to get out of there. She thought she had heard a strange sound while they were in there, and while she couldn't identify it, she had a bad feeling.

She leapt onto Mitten. During the registration she had learned that Mitten was a girl hamster. "Let's head over to Nphirea's, then." The giant hamster answered in the affirmative, and they set off. People around seemed amazed that Mitten could talk, along with everything else about this scene. Why would a mere copper plate have a beast like this, they wondered. Ainz could hear their whispers all around, better than they probably thought she could.

Lupusregina seemed like she didn't understand the rush, but also didn't make any objections.

"Hey, aren't you the one who went to gather herbs with my grandson?" said an elderly voice, and Ainz spotted a woman standing in the road.

"Who might you be?" Ainz asked, getting Mitten to stop.

"I'm Lizzy Balear, Nphirea's grandmother," she answered. Ainz had had a feeling.

"Oh! A pleasure to meet you," Ainz told her. While she was old, the woman still seemed strong. "You are correct, I escorted your grandson to Carne. I'm Varena, and this is Regina. We just recently returned."

"Magnificent," Lizzy said. "And that's this magical beast you're riding?"

"I'm the Wise King of the Forest, so I am. But my master has now named me Mitten!" Mitten seemed strangely proud of the name, even though she probably had no idea what it really meant.

Lizzy's eyes went wide. "What? This mighty creature is the Wise King of the Forest!?" Her outburst started another round of whispering from the nearby pedestrians.

The 'mighty' part still confused Ainz. "Yes, we ran into her while gathering herbs, and I forced her to surrender," she explained.

"Outstanding," Lizzy said in a more quiet tone, seeming starstruck. "Oh, so where is my grandson now?"

"He went ahead to unload the herbs. We were on our way there now, to collect our reward." _And make sure everything is okay_ , Ainz added to herself.

A look of relief washed across Lizzy's face. "I see. Why don't we go back together then?" she proposed. Ainz assumed she had been going that way anyway, though there was a strange look in her eye as she said it. "I'd love to hear about your adventure."

"Of course," Ainz said gladly, as she had wanted to speak with this woman as well.

* * *

With Lizzy's aid they reached the shop quicker than Ainz, Lupusregina, and Mitten would have managed on their own.

"Here we are," Lizzy declared. "Let's head inside." She took out her key, but then cocked her head. She pushed against the door, and it opened without resistance. "That boy... he's so careless," she said with a sigh, and they went inside. "Nphirea! Varena-san's here!" There was no answer, but Ainz smelled something in the air. "Where could he be?" Lizzy pondered.

Ainz sniffed a few times to make sure she wasn't imagining things. "This is bad," she said, and drew her axes. Lupusregina pulled out her mace as well.

"W-what is it?" Lizzy asked nervously.

"Follow me," was Ainz's only response. She headed for a door at the back of the room, and pushed it open. She gazed down towards another door down the hallway. Where the smell was coming from. "What's down there?" she asked Lizzy.

"That... that's the storeroom for our herbs."

At the old woman's answer, Ainz strode briskly down there, and firmly pushed the door open. The stench of blood was almost overwhelming. It being in a confined space like this probably made it worse. She could see Peter and Lukrut close to the door, Dyne against the wall a little further away, and all the way in the back was Ninya.

There was a shocked squeal from Lizzy. "W-what is this, what is..."

Then the bodies of Peter, Lukrut, and Dyne jerked, and started moving. As if they had been waiting for them. Their movements were not natural, nor did their faces show any hint of life.

"Zombies!" Lizzy screamed, but before she was done, Ainz had sprung into action. With not a moment's hesitation, the heads of all three of the former Swords of Darkness fell to the ground, and their bodies collapsed right after them. Only Ninya showed no sign of moving.

"W-where's Nphirea?" Lizzy asked, pale-faced, after the zombies had fallen.

"Not here," Ainz said curtly. But she saw the bell she had given the boy, crushed on the floor.

Lizzy turned, and ran into the shop. "Nphirea!" she shouted.

"Protect her," Ainz ordered.

Lupusregina nodded. "Understood," she said, and headed after Lizzy.

Ainz approached Ninya's body. With her excellent night vision, it was clear as day the amount of injuries on Ninya's body far exceeded the other Swords of Darkness. She knelt down, and made sure the body wasn't trapped like how people used to do after PK-ing in Yggdrasil. There was nothing of the sort to be found, so she examined the body. Ninya was unfortunately dead. Or maybe fortunately, considering the extent of the injuries. It had not been quick, and rather gruesome. And under Ninya's ripped clothing, she noticed the binding.

"I see..." she mumbled. _Dammit. Damn it. Why didn't I go the moment I heard the sound?_ It had been distorted to the point of not being recognisable. Likely some sort of magic barrier disrupting it. But she should have realised. She could have prevented this. Maybe. Maybe she could have at least spared Ninya... this.

 _What now?_ She picked up Ninya's staff, and looked at it. The killer had just left it there.

She had only known these people for three days. They weren't her friends. At best you could call them colleagues. They weren't part of Nazarick, and she shouldn't interfere too much in this world yet. Not unless she had some understanding of the consequences. It was too risky. But...

"This is somewhat... infuriating..." she hissed. Her fist closed around the staff, and crushed it.

 _Damn this world, and damn the consequences_. She was the Supreme Ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the greatest power in this land, and it was her decree that it would not end this way. This would not be the end of their story. She would not allow it. Not when it was within her power to do something about it.

She cast Message. "Ainz-sama?" came a feminine voice on the other end.

"Pestonia. I will be sending you four bodies soon. Take good care of them, and clean them up as much as you can. I will come by later to deal with them, after I attend to some... business."

* * *

Ainz searched through the belongings of the four Swords of Darkness, and arranged their bodies towards the back of the room. She was basically ready to send them, but she heard someone approaching.

"My grandson! Nphirea isn't here!" Lizzy practically screamed. No wonder the woman would be panicking.

Ainz turned towards her. "I checked their belongings, and there was no evidence of anything being taken or searched for. So the killers' aim must have been to take Nphirea." Though why someone would take the boy... well, Ainz could imagine two possibilities, and she liked one of them less than the other.

"Wait... who are these people?" Lizzy asked.

"Adventurers who took on Nphirea's request along with me and Regina," Ainz said, sounding calmer than she was honestly feeling inside. She had requested they come along in the first place. Another mistake that haunted her.

"Your friends?" Lizzy asked.

"No..." Ainz said quietly. "Merely colleagues."

Maybe Lizzy detected something in Ainz's voice, because she didn't follow up on that.

"More importantly," Ainz continued. "What do you think?"

"About what?" Lizzy asked.

"There was someone here who could cast Create Undead, a tier three spell, yet they didn't think to hide or take the bodies with them." Ainz was thinking it through herself as she spoke. "That would have bought them more time, but it's like they didn't care about being found. Or they were confident they would get away anyway." She folded her arms. "Regardless, this is going to be a problem if we don't deal with it quickly."

Lizzy's face was pale. She was clearly running through unpleasant scenarios in her own mind regarding what the culprits might want with Nphirea, and what they would do with him afterwards.

"How about making a request?" Ainz suggested. "Surely this is a job worthy of an Adventurer." She spread her arms wide. "And you're in luck, Lizzy Balear, for here you have the greatest Adventurer in town. Only I can bring your grandson back. If you make the request, I may be willing to accept it." Whether the cold fury she was feeling leaked into her voice or not, she couldn't tell. Nor did she truly care.

"Yes, if it were you..." Lizzy knew of the potion, and had seen the Wise King obeying Ainz. "I'll do it. I'll hire you!"

"I see," Ainz smiled under the helmet. "But can you afford me? Bringing your grandson back is one thing, but bringing him back safe and whole is another. Such a difficult job is going to be expensive." Perhaps this was too cruel, but right now she felt like needed to push things.

"How much will it take?"

"Everything."

"What?!" Lizzy's shock was evident.

"The cost is everything you have." Lizzy took a step back at Ainz's cold demand. "If you promise me that, I shall deliver your grandson back to you."

The fear on Lizzy's face was evident as the meaning of Ainz's words sank in. "You... you don't just mean the shop or money, do you? They... they say that a demon can grant any wish in exchange for your soul. Don't tell me you two are demons?" Sweat was running down her face.

"Would it matter if we were?" Ainz asked. She certainly felt like she was acting like one, but it was as if she couldn't stop herself. "You want your grandson back safely, don't you?"

Lizzy hesitated for a mere moment, before she gritted her teeth. "I'll hire you. I'll give you everything I have. Just save my Nphirea."

"Then the deal is struck," Ainz said with a self-satisfied grin. "I will need a map of the city to find him. Regina, go with her. I shall join you shortly."

* * *

After performing the transport, Ainz joined Lupusregina in another room that had a proper table in it. They sent Lizzy off to search the rest of the house, as an excuse to get her out of the way.

"What do you plan to do, Varena-san?" Lupusregina asked.

"When I examined the bodies, I noticed their plates were gone. But nothing else of value was taken. Why do you think that is?" Ainz inquired as she studied the map.

"I'm very sorry, but I do not know."

"Well-"

"Ainz-sama!" A slightly shrill voice suddenly appeared in Ainz's head.

"Entoma?"

"Yes, my Lord," came the response. "I have something I need to talk to you about."

Not a great timing, Ainz thought. "I am busy right now. I will contact you when I have time."

"Understood. Then please contact Albedo-sama when you're ready," Entoma said, and the connection vanished.

Ainz sighed, then looked at Lupusregina again. "They're trophies. The culprits must have taken them as a mementos. Which will be their undoing." She reached into her inventory, and took out a scroll. "That's Locate Object. I'm sure you know what we're looking for."

"Of course," Lupusregina said, and picked it up.

"Not yet," Ainz said coldly, grabbing the werewolf maid's hand.

Lupusregina jumped. "M-my apologies!"

It was really Ainz's own fault for not making that clear to begin with, but she was not in the mood to play nice. "When using intelligence magic, it's crucial to guard yourself against any possible counter-magic the enemy may have. Even if they're only using Detect Locate, protecting yourself with Fake Cover and Counter Detect is the very basics. Then there's also..." she went through a list of spells and actions as she pulled out new scrolls, eventually leaving Lupusregina with a pile of ten.

The technique she described to Lupusregina was actually developed by one of her guildmates: Squishy Moe. Whenever they planned to PK someone, they would go through this procedure, and very rarely have any issues tracking their target. Ainz was hoping that if she instructed Lupusregina on this now, she would have a better idea of what to do if they ran into other players in the future.

Maybe she should hold a quick course for all the other denizens who could use scrolls like this, after this was over. That would include Shalltear, Mare, Demiurge, Narberal, and maybe Entoma? She'd look into it later.

"... and that's basically it. We usually also use skills for extra boosts, but I don't think that's necessary for these guys. Just use the scrolls in the order I described," Ainz said.

Judging it was now safe to act, Lupusregina reached for the scrolls in order, unrolling them, and intoning their name to activate them. With a flash of heatless flame, they vanished one by one. At the very end she cast Locate Object.

There was a flash in her eyes. "They're here," she said, and pointed at the map.

"I see... that's the cemetery, if I recall correctly," Ainz said. A fitting place for someone who could make undead. Where Lupusregina was pointing looked like it was as far into the cemetery as you could get. It would have been helpful if she could read what it said on the map. Then she pulled out another two scrolls. "Now use Clairvoyance and Crystal Monitor so I can see as well."

Lupusregina activated the scrolls, and they could see a swarm of figures blanketing an area. And in the middle was a boy they recognised. He was dressed differently, but there was no mistaking that was Nphirea. "A horde of undead, huh?" They all looked like lower level undead, like the most basic ones Nazarick's auto-spawning system churned out, but there were a lot of them.

"So what do we do?" Lupusregina asked. "Teleport in there for an assault?"

"No no, think for a moment," Ainz chided her. "They have hundreds, possibly thousands of undead there. They must be planning something big. If we deal with that while saving Nphirea, our reputation will gain a massive boost." Not to mention that whatever they were planning, Ainz wanted to shut it down as part of their punishment. "Unfortunately we don't have time to gather more intelligence. We'll just have to head there and see for ourselves."

In different circumstances she would have loved to know how someone was able to control that many undead at once, and if she could harness that power for use in Nazarick. Even the strongest necromancer in the Guild hadn't been capable of that feat. It was annoying how often what she had to do got in the way of what she wanted to know.

Ainz headed out to find Lizzy first. "We're done," she told her.

"Did you find anything?" the anxious grandmother asked.

"They're in the cemetery," Ainz said quite simply.

"My grandson too?"

"Yes. Along with an army of undead."

A choked gasp was Lizzy's only response.

"We're heading over there now, but it would be a problem if the undead horde spilled out of the cemetery," Ainz explained calmly. "I'd like you to go inform the townspeople and the Guild, so they can be ready for it."

"W-wait! Do you have a way to break through an army of the undead?" Lizzy asked.

Ainz just pointed the axes on her back. "I have my way right here," she said with an unseen grin.

* * *

By the time they arrived at the cemetery on Mitten's back, they saw the guards running down from the walls. The groans of the horde on the other side were all-encompassing.

The one in charge noticed the approaching trio. "Hey, it's dangerous, you need to-" He stopped for a moment. "An Adventurer?" The hope in his expression seemed to leave him as soon as he saw the copper plates around their necks.

Ainz paid him no mind as she dismounted from Mitten.

"You lot need to get away from here!" the guard said.

"Perhaps you should look behind you, instead," Ainz said calmly. The guards did, and saw a towering monstrosity. Countless undead had bonded together to create a massive entity, a necroswarm giant. The guards started to panic, but a strange hissing sound made at least some of them turn towards Ainz again. From seemingly out of nowhere she pulled a large javelin. Then she drew her arm back, and flung the spear at incredible speed.

The guards flipped around to see what would happen, and the javelin impacted the 'head' of the giant, causing the whole thing to topple over backwards. A single throw was all it had taken to bring the towering terror down.

"It was in my way," Ainz said casually as she drew one of her axes, and pointed it at the gate. "Open up."

"D-don't be stupid! There's a swarm of undead on the other side!" They were committed to their duty, at least.

"Is that supposed to be problem for me, the Adventurer Varena?" Ainz knew it was a corny way of dropping her name, but she hadn't been able to think of something better. "Well, that's fine. I can understand why you might be hesitant to open the gates." With that said, she drew her other axe, and leapt over the wall. Lupusregina followed, with a shorter leap taking her on top of the wall, before she flipped over after Ainz.

"Wait, Regina-dono!" Mitten wasn't about to be left behind. "The great Mitten shall also follow her master, that I will!" The round creature raced up the stairs, and also vanished out of sight.

The guards were left dumbfounded. There was the sound of intense clashing, then the sound faded, until there was only silence. After the silence went on for a little bit, the guards braved going on top of the wall again, and saw the amount of corpses left behind. Aside from a few twitches here and there, none of them were still able to move. They could barely see the ground for the amount of slain undead stacked upon it.

And from up here, they could just barely hear the sounds of fighting still going on further in. They pondered the appearance of this strange dark warrior Varena. The copper plate had to be a mistake, clearly this dark hero had to be adamantite class to be able to crush this horde with only one teammate, and a magical beast at their side.

* * *

Fighting this amount of undead wasn't turning out to be hard, but it sure was tiresome. There was really no end to them, and progress was slow. Even with the help of Mitten and Lupusregina, there was only so much they could do to clear this with haste. Especially since the buggers were learning. Even with such a low intelligence as these things had, the sheer amount of throwing themselves at the small party had given the horde a feel for the range of their attacks, so they were starting to stay away. Taking a step back whenever Ainz took one forwards.

And while she wasn't worried about Lupusregina, she didn't want Mitten to get hurt. The Wise King was doing a good job keeping the undead at bay, the tail especially good for smashing them, but Ainz could tell the sheer amount of enemies was wearing the beast down.

"Should we call in the army from Nazarick, Ainz-sama? A hundred or so minions should be enough to clear this graveyard," Lupusregina suggested.

Ainz sighed. "Do I have to explain the reason we came to this town yet again?"

"My apologies, Ainz-sama," Lupusregina said. "Sacred Flash!" With a burst of blinding light, she brought her mace down, and eradicated a score of undead in an instant. "But what about waiting for the undead to kill a few humans, so we'd get a bigger reputation as saviours?"

Though that idea didn't truly appeal to Ainz, there were other problems too. "We have too little information. Be it the goal of our enemies, or the strength of this town, we simply don't know enough." A few of the horde stepped forward, maybe thinking she had dropped her guard, but Ainz cut them down immediately. "If we knew more, we could have done things differently. Now all we can do is press forward."

"Brilliant thinking, Ainz-sama. You really do consider everything," Lupusregina said earnestly. "As expected of our Supreme Ruler."

"Earth Tremor!" Mitten made a shout, and the ground in front of her heaved, throwing and crushing several undead. Ainz noticed that one of the markings vanished with each spell the Wise King cast. Was she limited to only a certain amount per day? Or did it have a longer recharge? The worst would be if they didn't recharge at all, but that seemed less likely. She would soon find out.

"Though we are running short on time. We need to reach our enemies soon, so summoning a little help may be unavoidable." She reached into her limited spellpool. "Summon Lesser Fire Elemental." At her level, one of her traits had turned the Lesser summons into basically freebies. She had a limited number of free casts per day, but it made them one of the ones still easy to access in this armour. And undead were weak to fire.

She cast the spell four times, summoning orange bundles of fire about the size of a large dog, with blue-white flames for eyes. "You two, escort Mitten. You two, get 'em." The latter two elementals wasted no time charging into the horde, and the numbers started thinning out immediately. "Mitten, I am leaving you in charge of cleaning up the horde. These two elementals will follow your orders, and guard you. Regina and I are going ahead to stop the ringleaders, and save Nphirea. I hope I can entrust you with this important task."

The giant hamster was eyeing the two flaming monsters nervously. Mitten was still an animal at heart, and animals in general didn't like fire. Still, she gave Ainz a determined look. "I will not let you down, master, that I won't!"

"Good," Ainz said with a smile. "Regina, clear us a path." Ainz would deal with anything that came from the sides or behind.

"Understood, Ainz-sama!" Lupusregina grinned, and raised her mace. "Extended Wave, Turn Undead!" A wave of light flew forwards, disintegrating any undead it touched, and the two of them charged forward into the breach. Leaving Mitten behind with the elementals, and the rest of the horde that weren't drawn to follow the werewolves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As the original Ainz is undead, walking through an undead horde isn't much of a problem, as they seek living things. My Ainz doesn't quite have that luxury, so I decided to use the excuse to make it into more of a group fight. Use the resources you have, right?  
> And ever since I saw the Swords of Darkness murdered in the first season of the anime, I felt it was a shame they couldn't have been saved. Though that made sense for that story. An undead Ainz would see no reason to bring them back when he had so little attachment to them.  
> But for my story, I figured... why not? Further complicating any future books I try to adapt, but eh. If I didn't diverge at all, where would the fun in this be?  
> Next chapter is the big showdown, and then the epilogue.


	8. Graveyard Showdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ainz and Lupusregina found the ringleaders of whatever was going on, and the battle to take them down got started.

* * *

With their reckless charge it didn't take that long to break through the horde. Ainz hoped it hadn't taken too much of Lupusregina's MP, though. She might need that.

As neither of them had any stealth skills, they just strode confidently towards the mausoleum. They could see a small group of people in robes huddled together by the entrance, chanting something. Were they the ones controlling the horde, maybe? Their robes looked a bit shabby, poorly dyed to something resembling black, but not with complete success. Except for one man in a blood-red robe who looked nearly undead himself. He looked more distinguished and powerful than any of the others.

"They're here, Khajit-sama," one the black robes said to the red robe.

Great, now I know they're idiots, Ainz thought. Unless that was a fake name. "Greetings, Khajit! Isn't a waste to spend such a beautiful night on a boring ritual?" Ainz said cheerfully. It was nearly a full moon, too.

Khajit shot his underling an annoyed look. "Hmph. I'm the one who decides if the night is perfect for a ritual or not," he said, stepping forth. His staff was a step above the others as well, but what drew Ainz's eye the most was the strange jewel he held in his right hand. Well, she could examine that afterwards. "More importantly, who are you?" Khajit asked.

Ainz was resting one of the axes over her shoulder. "We're Adventurers who accepted a request. We're here looking for a certain boy... I doubt I have to tell you his name." All of Khajit's associates took a step backward into more defensive stances. "If you would be so kind as to hand the boy over, I'll even be merciful enough to spare your life, Khajit."

Khajit sneered. "Stop talking bullshit. What're your names?"

Ainz wanted to roll her eyes. Is that really an important thing to ask in this situation? Well, maybe he wanted to see if he'd heard of them. "Before that... there should be someone else here. Someone with a piercing weapon. Are you trying to hide them? Or are they hiding because they're afraid of us?" A simple taunt, but it seemed to pay off.

A smug laugh came from inside the mausoleum, and a woman stepped out of the shadows. "So you examined the bodies? Well done!" Her praise almost sounded sincere.

Khajit shot her a glare. "You..."

"Hey now, they had already figured it out, so what's the point in hiding?" the woman said, not sounding particularly sorry.

Ainz noticed that even though she had stated what they were after, this group weren't trying to hold Nphirea for ransom. There was the possibility he was already dead, but hopefully not.

"So what's your name, big guy?" the woman asked, smiling like a snake. "Oh, I'm Clementine. Nice to meet ya."

Well, at least someone was having fun, though she didn't seem particularly fruity.

"There isn't really much point in telling you, but I'm Varena. That's Regina," Ainz told them.

"Never heard of them..." Khajit muttered. "How about you?" He turned to Clementine.

"Me neither. I collected info on all the high-level Adventurers in town, but neither Varena or Regina showed up," Clementine said with a shrug. Somehow she didn't seem too concerned. "How did you find this place, anyway?"

Ainz smirked. "The answer to that is under your cloak. Why don't you show us?"

"Aahh! Pervert! You dirty old lech!" Clementine's grin went from ear to ear. "Just kidding. You mean these?" She flung her cloak open to reveal her armour. At first glance it looked like scalemail, but Ainz's eyes saw the real truth.

Her armour was adorned with innumerable Adventurer plates. Copper, iron, silver, gold, platinum, and there were even a few mythril and orichalcum sparkles in there.

"Those told us you were here," Ainz said quite simply. The expression on Clementine's face made it seem like she didn't understand what Ainz was talking about.

"Regina," Ainz turned to look at her. "I'll leave you to deal with Khajit and his flock. I'll take care of the woman myself." In a whisper she added for Lupusregina's ears only: "Keep an eye on the sky above you."

"Understood," Lupusregina said, and bowed.

Khajit's smile looked rather bitter. Lupusregina flashed him a wicked grin in return.

"Why don't we go fight to the death over there, Clementine?" Ainz said, and started walking off to the side without even waiting for a response.

"Okay," Clementine said, and started walking after Ainz at a leisurely pace.

After a short while, a blinding flash of light happened behind them, where Khajit and Lupusregina were. Ainz and Clementine took that as their cue to face off.

"Say, were those people I killed back there your friends? Are you mad that I killed your allies?" Her mocking tone was grating on the ears, but Ainz refused to let that show in her expression in any way. "That mage was the funniest, she seemed to think help was coming until the very end. I'm sooo sorry I killed them!" Her giggling seemed perfectly designed to get under someone's skin.

"Ah, there's not really a need to apologise," Ainz said, concealing her fury. There would be time for that later.

"Really? That's too bad. I love getting people all riled up like 'How could you?!'. It much more fun to beat them down that way. Why aren't you mad? That's so boring." Clementine sounded genuinely disappointed.

Ainz shrugged. "If the circumstances called for it, I might have done something similar. So it would be hypocritical of me to berate you for that." She raised one axe, and pointed it at Clementine. "But that group were tools meant to build my name and reputation. The fact that you think you can interrupt my plans like that, well that's downright offensive."

That put a smarmy grin back on Clementine's face. "By the way, it was a mistake leaving your pretty friend back there. Even if she's a cleric, that won't help her against Khajit. Not that she would have stood a chance against me either."

"Regina wouldn't have any problem with someone of your level," Ainz said quite confidently.

"Don't be ridiculous! No type of caster could win against me! I just swoop in, and shunk! That's how it always ends!" Clementine declared loudly.

"I see... so you're a very confident warrior, then..." Ainz narrowed her eyes. It certainly seemed like Clementine was talking from experience. How did high-level combat work in the world? Was it anything like Yggdrasil with its HP values, where a chopped off head or limb was just a critical hit, but not automatically fatal? Well, this was probably the closest she'd get to finding that out in a while.

"Ya, of course. I can count the number of people in this country who'd last more than a minute against me on one hand." Clementine sounded like she truly believed that. "Gazef Stronoff, Brain Unglaus, probably one from the Blue Roses, and another from the the Drops of Red..."

Ainz chuckled. "Sounds good. Then I'll give you a handicap, to make things more fair. That'll be my revenge on you."

Clementine's expression looked a little uncomfortable for the first time. "I don't know what kind of ugly face you have under that helmet of yours," she said as her face twisted into an ugly grimace. "But Lady Clementine, who has already stepped into the realm of heroes, is not going to lose to the likes of you!!"

The fury Clementine was displaying wasn't far from the one Ainz felt on the inside, but outwards she appeared deadly calm. "That's why I'm giving you a handicap. I promise you that no matter what, I am not going to fight you seriously."

* * *

Lupusregina watched Ainz walk away in the corner of her eye, but her main focus was on her task at hand. The group of humans her master had told her to kill.

She didn't really have anything against humans. In fact, they could be quite pleasant company. She certainly had a better opinion of them than a couple of her sisters. Narberal absolutely despised them, and Solution thought they were only good for being eaten and tormented, preferably both at the same time. Entoma mainly saw them as a food source. Shizu was probably quite neutral on them, but she didn't speak much. And then Yuri was generally friendly towards anyone, and the same could be said for Sebas. Plus Aureole was human herself, but they didn't have a lot of contact with her...

But when the Supreme Ruler gave her an order, she had no issue complying. The smarmy looks on her opponents' faces told her they were already underestimating her. No reason to drag this out, though. She didn't get a lot out of tormenting people.

It was true that clerics typically didn't have as much offensive power as other classes, but Lupusregina was far from a typical cleric. She did have to stay within the confines of Regina, though.

She brought together her hands as if squeezing a ball. "Boost Maximise Area, Searing Light!" A ball of pure light formed between her hands, and shot forth a beam wide enough to engulf all nine of the men in front of her. It helped that they hadn't spread out. That was very thoughtful of them.

The cleric class and its adjacent holy trees did not have a lot of offensive spells compared to other caster classes. On top of that there were a bit of melee options in there as well. It was really a class mainly focused on being a support role. But if there was any spell available for that spec that could be used offensively, outside of the absolute top tiers, it was almost certain that Lupusregina knew it.

When the ray hit the group, it was like the light exploded, and lit up the whole area. Maybe they could even see it back in the city.

Afterwards the men had all fallen, save one. Lupusregina clicked her tongue. "You couldn't have just fallen quickly, and saved us both some time?"

Khajit laughed. "You fool. You think just because you can use tier three magic, you stand any hope of winning?"

He was sounding confident, but Lupusregina wasn't fazed. "Listen, I'm not an unreasonable person. If you just surrender, I'll... well, I can't let you live, I've been ordered not to, but I can make it quick and painless. What do you say? We both have places to be. Me, a tavern. You, the afterlife." She thought that sounded like a fair trade.

Khajit didn't look amused. "I'll show you what a fool you are to interrupt my plans," he said menacingly. "Behold the power of this supreme jewel!" He raised the thing he was holding in his right hand. It was so black it seemed to absorb the darkness around it, and there was a strange pulsing inside. All of sudden, and all at once, six of the burned corpses rose. Unsteadily they got up, and faced Lupusregina.

"Zombies? Really? You did notice I'm a cleric, right?" Lupusregina raised an eyebrow.

"Attack!" was all the response Khajit was willing to give, and the six zombies lurched forward.

Lupusregina sighed. This wasn't even worth taking seriously. "Holy Burst," she mumbled, holding forth her hand. Her lowest level AoE was enough to instantly snuff out the unlife of the zombies. What a joke.

Though it was curious how he managed to get all six to rise at once. As far as she knew, Create Undead was single-target, and couldn't be boosted to work otherwise. Did this world have some special skills to get around that? She eyed the 'supreme' jewel again. That had to be what allowed him to create and control multiple zombies at once.

"That's plenty! I've absorbed enough negative energy!" Khajit suddenly shouted with joy.

Lupusregina furrowed her brow. Well, it might be a problem to let him do anything more with it, so she reached for her mace, but then she heard something. Felt something. Ainz's words came to her mind, and she leapt back. Something huge swiped at the spot where she had been standing, then hovered to a stop before Khajit, and made a proper landing.

It was an innumerably large collection of human bones assembled into the shape of a dragon. A skeletal dragon, for short. Its level didn't really compare to Lupusregina's, but it did have one very annoying trait. For the first time tonight, Lupusregina thought: This could be trouble.

"Wahahahaha," Khajit's laughter roared. "Skeletal Dragons have absolute resistance to magic! Even your holy spells won't work here!" His smugness was so grating that Lupusregina couldn't wait to wipe it off his face.

This did tie Lupusregina down a bit, but it was a stretch to say she was worried. "In that case..." she said, drawing her mace. "I'll just clobber it to death!" With a delighted grin, she charged at the dragon. She could somewhat understand Ainz picking a warrior for her cover, because sometimes it was just more fun to get hands-on.

The dragon tried to stop her by striking with one of its front legs, but Lupusregina easily dodged it, and used the opening to leap into the air. The thing tried to track her position, but with a simple flip she smashed her mace into the dragon's head. It might be three metres tall, and at least thrice as long, but it still went flying, crashing onto its side with a thud that reverberated around the area.

Khajit looked like his world had just been turned on its head, and he quickly sought cover behind the dragon. "Wh-who are you?!" he screamed. "A mythril- no, orichalcum rank Adventurer?! There weren't supposed to be any in this city!!"

"Do you get it now?" Lupusregina shouted back to make sure he heard it. "You already turned down A- Varena-san's generous offer to trade the boy for your life. But I can extend mine once more that if you just surrender, I'll make your end quick!" It was still more of a mercy than he deserved, but the appeal of toying with someone this weak wore out pretty quick.

She could hear the way Khajit gritted his teeth all the way over there. "I won't! I won't! I won't let you!!!" he screamed. The skeletal dragon was getting back up, even though it was visibly cracking, and parts of it were dropping off. Khajit held out his jewel. "Ray of Negative Energy!" A black bolt shot from the crystal onto the dragon, quickly repairing it.

"I'll take that as a no, then," Lupusregina said. She could beat the thing down until Khajit ran out of MP. It'd take a while though, which was unfortunate. If she didn't end this before Ainz returned, she'd probably be disappointed, and Lupusregina didn't want that. She'd have to look for an opening to strike directly at Khajit.

"Reinforce armour! Lesser Strength! Undead Flames! Shield Wall!" Khajit cast a series of buffs on the skeletal dragon.

"So much for its 'absolute resistance', eh?" Lupusregina commented with an amused smile. "Well, two can play that game. Reinforce Armour. Shield Wall. Lesser Strength. Negative Energy Protection.  Lesser Speed." That would do. Defensive spells was a cleric strong point, but she probably shouldn't waste too much MP. And she wasn't sure whether weapon infusion got negated by the dragon's resistance or not, but now was not the time to test it out.

It was time for round two.

* * *

While Lupusregina was on the offensive with her superior speed and strength, it was hard to break through when Khajit kept healing the thing. Plus she wasn't a warrior, so she was not able to fully optimise her movements. She was trained as a support character, not a frontline fighter. While this thing...

She tried to keep an eye out for an opening to strike at Khajit, but none appeared. But maybe attacking his mind could work. "Confusion!"

"Undead Mind!" He cast at the same time as she did, so her spell to cause him to lose his senses got negated. That grin on his face was really starting to annoy her.

Then she suddenly noticed a shadow cover her. One of the dragon's tail swipes was about to connect. It seemed improbable to evade at this point, so she shifted her grip on the mace to use it as a shield. She could still feel the impact quite keenly as it spread through her body, but along with her defensive spells it was enough to simply send her flying. Though she managed to land nimbly, and hopped a little further away.

Too far out for the dragon to follow up. She had guessed correctly that it wouldn't, couldn't, stray too far from Khajit, or it would risk leaving him open for an attack. It gave her time to let the numbness in her arms recede. Thankfully she had the highest defence stat among the Pleiades.

"Acid Javelin!" Khajit had stuck himself out enough to launch a spell at her.

"Smite!" Lupusregina said in return.

As it was about to connect, the green spear splashed onto a barrier in front of her, and got harmlessly deflected to the sides. Unfortunately the dragon managed to easily block her bolt as well.

"A defensive spell? What a pain," Khajit growled.

Lupusregina grinned back at him. "Why don't you stop hiding, and come out? You're only making it harder on yourself, you know."

He huffed. "I see I don't have a choice." He raised that 'supreme' jewel into the air. "Behold the power of the Jewel of Death!"

The ground started trembling, and Lupusregina lost her balance for a moment. Then it cracked open, and another skeletal dragon crawled out of the ground. The werewolf maid recognised the trouble this might cause, but she also noticed something else. The 'Jewel of Death' stopped pulsing.

"Hmm, it's already out of negative energy?" Khajit looked dissatisfied. "But once I kill you and your friend, and spread death throughout the city, I should be able to get most of it back."

Lupusregina did a quick analysis, and decided to just charge while he was still talking. If he liked listening to his own voice so much, that might as well be the last thing he did. One of the dragons swiped at her, but she dodged it easily. Then the other one's tail came at her. She managed to leap over it, though just barely. The tail swung to follow her, but she was able to brace against it, and make another leap out of the way. Though that left her open to getting caught by the first dragon's claw.

To Khajit it might have looked like she just got crushed, but she stopped the blow with her mace again, and this time stood her ground, managing to push the dragon backwards.

"Who are you?!" Khajit repeated his earlier question, with shock written across his whole face. "How are you able to block attacks like that without using martial arts?"

Lupusregina smirked. "I was created by Supreme Beings whose powers surpass even the gods. Such things are child's play."

"Do you take me for a fool?!" Khajit screamed.

"I'm just telling the truth," Lupusregina said in all honesty. "Whether you believe it is on you. But that's why you had no chance of winning from the start."

"Get her, skeletal dragons!" Khajit shouted, a slight tremor in his voice. And as the two creatures moved to attack, he cast another Acid Javelin. Unfortunately for Lupusregina that was enough of a distraction for her to take a tail strike straight to the body, and she went flying in a less elegant way this time.

Thanks to her defensive spells there wasn't a lot of pain, but it had stung nonetheless.

"If you surrender now, I may consider sparing you," Khajit said mockingly, and it sounded like he had no such intention at all. He probably just wanted her to plead for her life.

As she pushed herself up, anger was showing on her face for the first time. "You know... I normally have nothing against humans, but you... you are starting to tick me off, you piece of scum," she growled, and her yellow eyes flashed.

Normally she would have cast a lesser healing spell on herself at this point, but she refused to give this gnat the satisfaction of knowing he'd caused actual damage.

There was panic in his voice as he yelled: "Crush her!" to the dragons.

Then a voice in the distance called out. "Lupusregina Beta! Show them the might of Nazarick!"

A smile returned to Lupusregina's face. "As my Lord wishes." She turned towards Khajit, smiling evilly at him. "Then I shall face you not as Regina, but as Lupusregina Beta!"

The dragons were right on top of her now, both swinging down with their claws, but...

"Warp Speed."

Suddenly Lupusregina was not there, but over to the side, as the claws crashed into the ground. The dragons were looking around for her, confused.

Khajit was the first to spot her, as she was still within his peripheral vision to the left. "How did you dodge that?" he asked incredulously. The dragons quickly moved to put themselves between her and Khajit again. "Doesn't matter, you still have no way to win."

"Oh, I have any number of ways I could win," Lupusregina informed him. "But first..." She pulled off her cloak, and suddenly her outfit had shifted dramatically. Instead of her Adventurer's gear, she was wearing a maid uniform, all black and white. The cap on her head was a bit strange, it was odd how much the outfit highlighted her bust, and most maid uniforms didn't have a split up the side of the skirt. But it was still unmistakably meant to be a maid uniform.

However the most eye-catching thing was her weapon. The mace was gone, and instead Lupusregina was holding a massive black and silver sceptre. It resembled a giant holy symbol, and the size of it compared to one holding it seemed absurd. Especially the head, that seemed to be as large as its wielder just on its own.

"Rejoice, for you are the first human of this world to have the honour of facing Lupusregina Beta of the Pleiades Combat Maids, loyal to the Supreme Ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick: Ainz Woolfe Gown!"

"Maid?" Khajit seemed perplexed. This was probably nowhere on the list of things he had expected to see tonight, or even in his entire life. He made the expression of someone who felt the universe was playing a cruel joke on him. "Skeletal dragons!"

As soon as the things started to move, Lupusregina repeated: "Warp Speed!"

All of a sudden she was right in front of Khajit. Time seemed to slow as she grinned widely at him, and then her hand moved. Blood flew through the air, and she came to a stop behind him.

Warp Speed was a high tier buff with a very short duration that allowed its target to move so fast it seemed to others as if they had changed positions instantaneously. This was typically to let someone escape quickly without access to teleportation magic. Lupusregina particularly enjoyed the burst of speed, though. The way the world slowed down around her was somewhat intoxicating.

Khajit clutched the side of his neck. "Gah... ack..." His face was sweating as he turned to look at the maid, and the bloody nail on the pinky finger she was holding up.

"Does it really hurt that much? It was such a shallow cut, too," Lupusregina said. "Well, they say paper-cuts hurt more than stab wounds."

Khajit swung his staff at her, but well before he could connect, she had hopped and skipped her way onto the top of the mausoleum, so she could look down on him and his dragons.

"Te... teleportation magic?" he wondered out loud.

"Hm, not quite!" Lupusregina smiled brightly. "But to someone like you it may as well be."

"So your ace move was to get close, and take me down!" Khajit sounded both in pain and furious.

"Haha, nope!" Lupusregina still sounded cheerful from on high. "But since you turned down my merciful offer, not once, but twice, I had to show you I was serious, and cause you some pain." She sighed. "But unfortunately it would be rude of me to keep Ainz-sama waiting, so I'll have to bring this to an end. Consider yourself lucky."

"A-are you crazy...?" Khajit said, slowly realising how far out of his depth he was.

"Let's end this on a little lesson!" Lupusregina's perky voice seemed very at odds with the situation. "You seem to think that your skeletal dragons have absolute resistance to magic, but unfortunately for you that is not correct. Let me demonstrate!"

The sceptre make a small clink as its base struck the rock, and a light that seemed like a second sun started forming in front of the symbol that made up its head.

"W-what is... n-no, you can't defeat skeletal dragons with magic! Go! Kill her!" Khajit's panicked voice sounded like a shriek.

"No no, see. Skeletal dragons can only nullify magic from tier six and below. But since Lupusregina Beta-sensei can use magic above that, they will not be able to resist!"

The understanding dawning on Khajit was clear to see. The dragons seemed so close to reaching Lupusregina, but then...

"This is going to sting a bit. Maximise Power, Holy Pillar!" A lance of light, a few metres in diameter, shot out from the sceptre, straight at Khajit and his dragons. It was so bright it seemed to turn night into day, and purify the very air around it. It shattered the dragons on impact, and continued towards its final target.

"All my plans... over five years of my life... undone in less than an hour..." Khajit muttered in disbelief as he went blind. Then it struck, and it only hurt for a moment before he ceased feeling anything. When the light faded away, the night seemed even darker than it had before.

Lupusregina seemed satisfied. "He really should have accepted my offer. Though... then I wouldn't have had the chance to cut loose, so maybe I should be thankful?" The smell from below reached up to her. "Hm... you know, this makes me see Entoma's side of things a little better. Maybe she'd like it if I brought him back with me."

* * *

Ainz swung one of her axes down, but all she struck was the ground, as Clementine effortlessly leapt back to evade.

"Awww, I'm tired," the blonde said. It had been several minutes, but Ainz hadn't so much as grazed her opponent. "Ya know, you have a lot of strength, but no finesse," Clementine taunted. "You're just swinging those things around like an idiot. No technique at all. Are you trying to make fun of warriors?"

Ainz suppressed a chuckle. Maybe she was. "Then why don't you attack? You've only been evading this whole time," Ainz retorted. Clementine hadn't even drawn a weapon yet, but there was a clear frown on her face. "What happened to your confidence that you wouldn't lose to the likes of me?"

Clementine's frown turned into a scowl. Seems like that did the trick, as she finally drew a weapon. Out of the four stilettos and a morning star strapped to her waist, she selected a stiletto. Ainz wondered whether there was some difference between them, or whether she just liked having spares.

Before either of them could make a move, the ground shook.

Ainz looked over towards the mausoleum. "Skeletal... dragons...?"

"Bingo! I see you know your stuff," Clementine replied. "They're a caster's worst nightmare!"

"So that's why you say Regina can't win," Ainz said, turning her attention back to her opponent.

"Ex-act-ly." The appearance of the dragons seemed to have restored Clementine's composure, and she sounded like her usual mocking self.

It was true that in her current state, Lupusregina would have a tough time winning. She had a blunt weapon, but she wasn't well trained in melee combat, and with her holy magic out of commission it could be a problem.

Ainz pointed one of her axes forward like a spear, and held the other above her head, as a defensive posture. She had noticed that Clementine had changed her grip on her weapon.

"And? Do you have some way to close the distance between us?" Ainz asked.

"Who knows..." Clementine said, and entered a strange stance. Sort of crouched like a predator ready to spring. It was a somewhat funny pose, but definitely not one to be taken lightly. Then she sprung into action, moving at a speed Ainz would have thought her incapable of. She came right at Ainz, and easily moved around the axe head without losing any speed. When a startled Ainz brought the other axe down to strike, Clementine said:

"Impenetrable Fortress."

It seemed impossible, but Clementine's stiletto not only stopped the axe that should have broken it, but also bounced it back as if it had struck an incredibly solid surface. Clementine leapt into the opening this created, and struck! Ainz was neither able to retreat or dodge, and the awful sound of metal scraping against metal resonated across the cemetery. Ainz hastily swung her other axe, but Clementine leapt clear.

"A martial art, huh?" Ainz said out loud. Those hadn't existed in Yggdrasil, and she had to be wary of them. This one had to protect her weapon, and give her the indomitability needed to withstand any blow.

"So hard... what's that made of? Adamantite?" Clementine asked.

Ainz had felt something strike near her left shoulder, and she looked over. While it wasn't enchanted, this was still armour made by a level 100 caster. That Clementine had managed to make even a small dent in it spoke volumes of her destructive power.

"Well, whatever. I just have to aim for somewhere with thinner armour next. I had wanted to cut you up bit by bit until you could no longer move, so I could torture you, but what can you do?" Clementine mocked.

So she had struck there on purpose? Interesting. Ainz hadn't considered anything beyond swinging for as much damage as possible. Against a tougher opponent you needed to think on how the battle would play out. A good lesson to keep in mind. Clementine was cleverer than she seemed.

"Here I come!" Once again she flew straight at Ainz.

When Ainz struck this time, she expected Clementine to use her "Impenetrable Fortress", so there wasn't as much force behind the blow. It still felt like striking a particularly hard wall, but now she could bring the other axe around to catch Clementine between them.

"Flow Acceleration."

Using a second martial art, time seemed to slow, and Clementine slipped out of the way of the other blow. With another opening created, Clementine leapt straight for Ainz's helmet. She tried turning her head to avoid the blow, but Clementine easily managed to readjust her attack, and shove the stiletto into the slit, aiming for Ainz's eye. There was a shunk, and a smile of victory on Clementine's face, but that turned into a frown as she pulled the stiletto out, and no blood came with it. As Ainz retreated and recovered enough to strike again, Clementine once again leapt clear.

"You better stop giving me a handicap. If you don't fight seriously, you're going to die," Clementine said mockingly, though she was examining the tip of her stiletto. "But how did you not take any damage from that attack? I could feel it sink in, but..." She licked the blade, as if to confirm there was nothing on it.

"Goodness me... I'm certainly learning a lot from this fight. I've seen a new martial art, and learned how important it is to balance your attacks." Ainz was having a very instructive time. That second martial art she remembered Stronoff using as well.

"Huh? You're only learning this now? Not much of a warrior, are ya?" Clementine smirked. "Though I still want an answer to my question. Was it some defensive martial art?"

Ainz chuckled. At least she was right about Ainz's qualifications as a warrior. "Ahaha, I really came under-prepared, my apologies. But I've learned a lot from this fight, and I'm grateful for that. We are running out of time though." Not only in regards to Lupusregina fighting in a weakened state, but also there might be other Adventurers underway. If anyone saw the fire elementals, she could blame them on Mitten. No one had any idea what the Wise King of the Forest was capable of, after all. "That's enough fun and games."

Ignoring the confusion on Clementine's face, Ainz raised her voice. "Lupusregina Beta! Show them the might of Nazarick!"

"Now then." Ainz looked squarely at Clementine. With a quick spin, she thrust the spike tips of the axes into the ground, and let go. Then spread her arms wide as if she was offering a hug. "Come at me like you're ready to die!"

Clementine just stared at Ainz. "What are you doing? Did ya give up?" she asked.

"Hah, no. I just thought that since I gave Lupusregina her orders, I should finish up here, as well." Ainz stated calmly. It was almost over.

"Huh? Are you serious, ya bastard?" Clementine was getting agitated. "You don't even have any martials arts or skills, and you think you can defeat me?! There's a limit to how much you can piss me off!"

"You talk a big game for someone so weak," Ainz taunted.

Clementine sneered. "Weeellll... I agree that we should finish this up." She went into her crouch again. "Stride of Wind. Greater Evasion. Ability Boost. Greater Ability Boost." After using four martial arts at once, she launched herself at Ainz with blistering speed.

Ainz didn't react at all, just standing there as if welcoming the attack.

"Die!" Clementine said, thrusting her stiletto into the slit on the helmet. She could feel it sink in again, and twisted it to cause more damage, then a spell fired off from the weapon: Lightning, sending electricity through Ainz's whole body. "Not done yet! Flow Acceleration!" she screamed, grabbed a second stiletto, and shoved that in there as well, activating the Fireball stored inside.

While she was cackling with laughter, Ainz wrapped one arm around Clementine to trap her, and the laughter suddenly stopped.

"Hm, I see. They didn't have weapons like this in Yggdrasil," Ainz said. She'd have to examine them later.

"What? No! Why won't you die?!" Clementine's panic was a nice change from her regular tone.

"I suppose it's time to give you your answer," Ainz said. The armour vanished, restoring her God-tier outfit.

"A woman?!"

"Why does everyone react that way? Aren't there more important things to pay notice to? You're a woman too," Ainz said casually. "These are in the way..." She reached up and pulled the stilettos out of her eyes, and tossed them to the ground. Underneath her eyes looked as whole as if nothing had pierced them in the first place. "Now to answer your question, I have high-tier damage nullification. Attacks of your level can't harm me, no matter where you strike."

"Impossible! What are you?!" Clementine was trying to push herself free.

"As you can tell by this robe, I'm a caster. So, how was it? Fighting a caster with an axe? Your swoop and shunk didn't do much, did it?" Maybe Ainz was enjoying this too much. "Oh, and one more thing." Before Clementine's very eyes, Ainz shifted into her normal form. Growing fur, and turning her face into that of a beast. She grinned wide.

"A werewolf?!" Clementine's struggles increased.

"Ex-act-ly," Ainz said, mimicking Clementine's earlier tone.

"W-why can't I...?" Clementine grunted, realising that she wasn't able to budge in the least.

"Ah, that's why I gave you the handicap," Ainz explained. "Basically, fighting someone of your level wasn't worth wasting any of my spells on."

"You piece of shit!" Clementine shrieked.

"Now, I normally don't like to make someone suffer, but for you I shall make an exception," Ainz said with a cold smile revealing the fury she'd been containing this whole time. Then she started squeezing. In different circumstances she might have liked to take Clementine in for interrogation and study, but her transgressions couldn't go unpunished.

"W-what? No! No, you can't be! Bastard! Stop!!" Clementine's armour made a shriek of its own as it started denting. "You piece of shit!"

"If you had turned out to be even weaker, I had considered finishing you off with this," Ainz said calmly, and held up a black dagger with four jewels in the hilt. "But in the end, dead is dead, whether by blade, or by crushing. You took your time with them, didn't you?"

Clementine's struggles grew more and more desperate, resorting to her nails, her fists, and even her morning star to try to get Ainz to stop, but the werewolf wizard just steadily increased the pressure. Wrapping her other arm around as well. Though it must have felt like an eternity to Clementine, it really wasn't that long until she was reduced to a convulsing mess, and then with a loud snap, she stopped moving at all. Ainz dropped her lifeless body to the ground.

"Prestidigitation." Finally she 'wasted' a spell on Clementine, or rather on cleaning off all of the filth that had gotten on Ainz during that. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I'm very hypocritical." She spat.

It honestly worried her human side how much she had enjoyed that. She had used to believe that revenge solved nothing, and certainly shouldn't be pleasant. Now she was pondering how much she might have changed since coming here.

* * *

As she walked back towards the mausoleum, she saw something come storming her way. Even if she hadn't been able to make out the giant fluffball, the two fire elementals escorting it would have given away who it was.

"Master! Master!" Mitten was shouting, but as soon as she got close enough to see Ainz's face, she tried to stop her charge. "Aaaahhhh, there's a strange monster here, master, that there is!"

Ainz shook her head as the beast was about to start back-pedalling. "Would you keep it down?"

The hamster paused. "That voice... master, is that you?!" Mitten's soft, round eyes somehow got even rounder.

"Yes, so calm down." Ainz had a lot of forgiveness for cute, but right now was not the time to make a fuss. Not to mention she was feeling weary and grumpy.

"I would have never guessed your true appearance would be like so, that I wouldn't! Your power is beyond my imagination! Mitten shall serve you even more faithfully from now on, that I shall!"

"That's very nice of you, but please keep it down," Ainz repeated. The roaming elementals had spotted other Adventurers approaching, though they were still fighting the remnants of the horde. She was tempted to have the elementals stall them, but that might have an impact on her reputation if they discovered who they belonged to.

"But, master-"

Suddenly Lupusregina was there, and bonked Mitten on the head. "Ainz-sama told you to keep it down!" She looked at Ainz. "Are you sure it's worth it keeping such a creature around, Ainz-sama? I could put her out of her misery right away."

Ainz smiled a little. "She's cute and fuzzy, and I'm sure we can learn to all get along. Plus, she's useful for building our reputation as Adventurers. But right now..." She gazed into the distance again. "We don't have a lot of time. Loot the bodies of any equipment before anyone else arrives."

"And what of the bodies themselves?" Lupusregina asked. "Are we taking them to Nazarick?"

Ainz shook her head. "No, we need to hand them over as proof we defeated the ringleaders here." Even though people might be curious about the state of them. "I'm heading into the mausoleum, so I'm leaving the cleanup to you. And don't forget to put your disguise back on."

* * *

Down at the bottom of the stairs, Ainz found the strange cavern Khajit had been using as his base. In the middle of a magic circle down there stood Nphirea. He was wearing strangely translucent clothing, but more eye-catching was the cut on his face. It went across both of his eyes, so the boy had likely been blinded. Well, she could fix that with magic, so that wasn't a problem.

More worrisome was the fact that boy hadn't reacted at all to her presence. He was just standing there as stiff as a rod. Even blind he should have been able to hear or sense someone approaching. The fact that he wasn't moving at all indicated some form of mind control was at work. The likely culprit was the strange spider-web-like circlet on his head.

She was about to reach for it, then stopped. Instead she cast a spell: "Appraisal Any Magic Item." In Yggdrasil this spell would tell you the name of an item, its creator, and what it did. It worked in this world as well, and even better than in Yggdrasil at that. Things she never would have learned in the game popped into her head.

"A Crown of Wisdom, eh?" Turning a person into a magic item. This hadn't existed in Yggdrasil, nor would it have been possible for it to work the way it did. The game didn't have the systems to support it. Now the big question was what to do.

Her appraisal had told her the only way to save Nphirea's mind from this was to destroy it. But she had no idea whether it was possible to obtain or create another. For all she knew it might be one of a kind. Taking the boy back to Nazarick as he was would likely be very helpful. The thought of destroying something so rare hurt the collector in her.

But her hesitation lasted for only a moment. Deliberately failing a job would tarnish her name and reputation, and he was just a boy. One who had already aided her, and whom she stood to gain much from as it was.

She pointed a finger at it. "Greater Break Item." The crown crumbled into a thousand tiny sparkles that vanished, and Nphirea collapsed into her arms. "Nature's Mend." Her next cast filled the boy with green healing energy, restoring his body, but he was still so fatigued that he didn't wake up.

Ainz re-summoned her armour and weapons before scooping the boy up. "Let's get you home..." she whispered.

She went back up the stairs, and found Lupusregina and Mitten waiting for her. They both bowed. The fire elementals' timer had expired, and they had despawned. "Ainz-sama." "Master." Maybe Lupusregina had given the furball a quick lesson while Ainz was away.

"Well then," Ainz said. "Let's make our victorious return." She smiled, and made a flourish with her cape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a feeling this turned into the longest chapter.  
> The biggest change here was naturally Lupusregina's fight. I couldn't just have her copy everything Narberal had done. I still kept the same back and forth, though, more or less.  
> This part also had the biggest outtake I've done so far. I've removed or changed smaller parts from my drafts before, but here I ended up cutting a whole chunk I felt wasn't working.  
> See, in the book Ainz has a bit of an interaction with the Jewel of Death after saving Nphirea. It's an intelligent item, which also didn't exist in Yggdrasil. But I have no idea if it has any part in future books, and it really wasn't coming together well, so I cut the whole thing.


	9. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With that whole mess sorted, it was time for Ainz to think about what was to come next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I fucked up. This was supposed to be part of the previous chapter, but I forgot until it was too late. And it doesn't make sense to put this as part of the next bit.  
> So I'll have to add a second epilogue, I guess...

* * *

The sun was coming up by the time they reached the gate out of the cemetery again, with all the guards having expressions of awe as they watched them leave.

Lizzy was waiting for them at the Guild, so they handed Nphirea over to her care before meeting with the Guild officials. They had to talk about rewards and advancement. Testimony was being obtained from the cemetery guards, the bodies of the culprits were being collected while they spoke, and they had spoken with Lizzy. It had lasted for a while, but without waiting for any further judgement, the Guild had hastily awarded them mythril plates.

Ainz had been hoping for orichalcum, but it was still a big step in the right direction. When they returned to the inn, the entire room fell silent, though for a different reason than last time. That two Adventurers who had arrived in town just a couple of days ago as copper plates, now returned as mythril was unheard of. Everyone was wary of what these two might be capable of.

After paying for a room again, Ainz took the key, and went upstairs with Lupusregina. She removed her helmet once they were inside, and pondered her next move. The Guild officials were aware of her being a woman, but they had no reason to spread that around on their own. Now that she had reached this rank, she'd have to think of some way to have an unveiling. Maybe next time she walked into the Guild to look for a job, she could take her helmet off? That could work.

"How insolent of them to only give us mythril," Lupusregina commented, fiddling with the plate.

"That's fine, for now," Ainz reassured her. "If anything, it's impressive they were willing to give us these when they haven't even completed their investigation. And everyone will be spreading our names and deeds around town. We may not have hit the top just yet, but we're still the highest rank of anyone in the city, and I have a feeling it won't be that hard to advance further." She was actually quite satisfied with how it had all turned out. One might even say it had worked out almost perfectly.

Not only would they be able to take on higher jobs now, but one of the reasons for why they hadn't been boosted straight to the top was the lack of previous accomplishments. The Guild was erring on the side of caution, but once the full investigation was over, they'd recognise the full gravity of what Ainz and Lupusregina had pulled off. And by then everyone would know their names by word of mouth alone.

It might even draw other high-ranking Adventurers to the city, and if they could get talk going in those circles as well... yes, despite a few hiccups, the plan was rolling along better than she had dared hope.

"So what are you doing with the Balears?" Lupusregina asked.

"Hm? Oh, I was thinking of having Lizzy and Nphirea relocate to Carne. I want to set them to work making potions for Nazarick. I wouldn't mind turning the whole village from a foothold to a stronghold, if possible." So long as she could get the villagers to agree. Keeping good relations was preferable. She wanted to send someone to be their representative at the village, and to keep the Balears safe. Maybe she should name some others for them to guard too. Enri might be the obvious choice, as she controlled the goblins. Yuri could probably handle that duty.

Now it was tempting to sleep, but she had adjusted enough to this world that she was certain she could manage to go one night without. She'd just have to make sure to get a good rest tonight, as she didn't want to waste any daylight.

Then she remembered something. "Oh right, I need to contact Albedo." It was bad that she hadn't done so earlier, but there hadn't been time. She cast Message, and the first thing Albedo said was far outside of anything Ainz had considered possible.

"Ainz-sama. Shalltear Bloodfallen has revolted against us."

It took several seconds for Ainz to even comprehend what it was Albedo had said. The shock was severe.

Her utter bewilderment manifested itself in a single word: "What..."


	10. Bonus: The Swords of Darkness Reforged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At some unspecified time during the events of book 3, Ninya awoke. The work of the four Swords of Darkness was not yet over, whether they liked it or not.

* * *

Ninya was floating in a vast, empty space. Perhaps waiting. Perhaps content. Perhaps nothing. Then a light appeared. With it came a voice. "...Ninya..." It was faint, but Ninya's name could be heard. And the voice became gradually louder, calling his name over and over.

At first Ninya felt too heavy. He didn't want to move. But there was something about the voice. Something strong, warm. He tried to reach for it, tried to reach the light. It was so hard, but...

Ninya drew a breath, and it hurt so much. But it was like he hadn't felt anything at all for so long, that it was almost welcome. He opened his eyes, but his sight was so blurry that he couldn't make out anything expect that there were lights above him.

"Ah, Ninya-san. Welcome back."

Now that he heard it more clearly, Ninya realised he knew that voice. "Va... Varena-san?" His whole body was so incredibly heavy that even talking took monumental effort. _Welcome back?_

"You should sleep now," the voice told him.

He could make out a shape moving, but his vision was not clear enough to actually see who or what it was. What he knew was that he didn't want to sleep. He didn't want to close his eyes again. But before he could get the words out, to try to protest, the voice said three more words.

"Wild Regeneration. Sleep."

A pleasant warmth filled Ninya's entire being, and no matter how much he tried, he wasn't able to stop sleep from claiming him.

* * * 

No dreams haunted Ninya, and when he woke again, there was only a sense that some time had passed. He didn't know how much. He tried moving. His body was still heavy, but there was no pain. Even breathing felt easy enough, so he attempted to sit up.

The room was unlike anything he had ever seen, so lavish that everything basically radiated wealth. The candelabras alone looked like they would fetch a fortune. And the bed he was on was larger and more comfortable than anything he had felt in his entire life. Was this some Lord's mansion? That thought was slightly disturbing. No, it seemed more like something out of this world. Was this the afterlife?

As his eyes scanned the room, he noticed there was another person in the room. Standing silently at the door was someone wearing a maid's uniform, and... an eyepatch? She had long orange hair, a green scarf, and the air of a soldier more than a servant. Maybe his vision was still unclear. He could not remember what had happened, or how he had gotten here, but when he tried to remember it was as if a sensation of icy cold struck his soul.

"Who... who are...?" he asked, and the maid finally reacted.

"Oh. Excuse me," the maid said, her voice strangely flat. "I shall fetch my Lord, please wait." She made a slight bow, then exited the room.

Lord? Was this a mansion after all, then? Or did God have maids? Why couldn't he remember?

He swung his legs over the side of the bed. Attempting to stand up turned out to be a mistake, and he fell right back onto the bed.

What was the last thing he could remember? He had done a job with the Swords of Darkness, escorting someone. Nphirea Balear. And a couple of mysterious Adventurers had been with them. Varena and Regina. They had completed the job, and returned to the Balear shop to unload the herbs, but when they tried to leave the storeroom, the door had opened, and... and there had been a woman...

Ninya's head hurt, and he sat up again with a scream. Terror ran through his whole body and mind, and he couldn't even quite remember why. But remembering that woman filled him with more fear than he had ever experienced, to the point where he wanted to throw up.

"Hello, Ninya-san," a voice startled Ninya out of his dark thoughts. With terror still fuelling him, he quickly turned to look towards the source.

"V... Varena-san?" Ninya asked cautiously. The face and voice matched, but she wasn't wearing her armour, or any warrior gear at all. She was wearing a black and red robe more stylish and elaborate than anything Ninya could have imagined.

Varena nodded, and took some gentle steps closer. "How are you feeling?" she asked, and placed her hand on Ninya's forehead, as if checking for a fever.

"Um..." Ninya was surprised at how relieved he was that Varena felt so alive. "I... don't know... w-what happened?"

"You died," Varena said so casually it was almost more shocking than if she had said it dramatically. "I brought you back."

It didn't sound like she was joking. "W-wha... h-how?"

"Later," Ainz said with a smile. "I also took the liberty of removing the memories of how you died. I don't think you would want that knowledge."

Ninya felt like everything Varena was saying sounded impossible, but there was no trace of dishonesty in her voice. A question surfaced. "Varena-san... a-are you God?" If Varena really wasn't bluffing, that was first thing that came to Ninya's mind.

Varena giggled, and her blue eyes sparkled with amusement. "I suppose some might call me that," she said enigmatically. Even after taking a seat, she somehow seemed to loom. "But before we continue, I have an important question to ask you. When I examined you, I noticed your binding."

It took Ninya a moment to realise what Varena was referring to. "Oh..." Of course she would have seen. That felt more frustrating than he had expected it would be.

"So I ask: Ninya-san, are you a boy?"

Ninya gave Varena a bewildered look. She had already seen. But the utter sincerity of the question didn't make it seem like she was mocking or judging him in any way.

"B-but... I have... and I don't have..." was all Ninya could think to say. It confused him why anyone would still think he was a boy.

Varena gave him a kind look. "That matters far less than you might think. Are you a boy, Ninya-san?" she asked again. "Though if you don't want to answer, that's alright. I shan't force you."

Ninya's mind was racing. Was it truly possible to be a boy without having... why did Varena make that sound so natural? Surely you had to be what you were born as. _But if I really had a choice_... If Varena was truly God, maybe she could fulfil such a wish. Maybe that was why she was asking.

He nodded. "Y-yes..." If he could be a boy, it would free up a lot of his anxiety and unease. And he wouldn't have to worry about the other Swords of Darkness finding out, and believing otherwise.

"Good to know," Varena said with a warm smile.

Ninya looked around the large room again, and at the door. "Where are we?"

"Ah, that's the thing," Varena said, suddenly sounding more serious. "Before I can tell you anything, I need to inform you of the two options you have."

"Options?" Ninya gave her a confused look.

"Yes. Option one: I can return you to E-Rantel, and your previous life," Varena said. "I'll have to alter your memories a bit more, but you can pick up where you left off, and continue your journey that way. You won't remember me as anything more than Varena the Warrior, and you'll be free of any obligation to me."

Ninya swallowed nervously. Suddenly it seemed less talking to God, and more like dealing with a demon.

"Option two: You stay here. I'll train you, help you get stronger. Teach you things you wouldn't be able to learn elsewhere. And I'll tell you about this place." Varena gave him sympathetic look as he could sense the catch coming. "But it won't be for free, of course. You'll have to swear fealty to me. You'll have to share any knowledge I'm lacking whenever I ask, and you won't be able to leave this place without my say-so. I may ask you to do jobs for me, and failure to fulfil them will be punished harshly. You'll help with my experiments. The training will be harsh, as you are, after all, only human. But if you persist, I promise you power and knowledge beyond normal humans of this world. And should you serve me faithfully, I may eventually trust you enough to grant you leave by your own will."

Ninya's head was spinning. This was a lot to take in. "I..." What exactly was this deal he was being offered? Grasping the full scope of it felt impossible. There was something strange about the way Varena had said ' _this world_ ' as well. And she was talking as if she wasn't human. What did this all mean?

Before Ninya could arrive at an answer, Varena got up. "I'm not asking you to decide right now," she said. "By tomorrow I should have the others up and ready as well. I'll let you all convene to discuss this once everyone is recovered enough. Whether you decide as a group, or individually, is up to you. I can't give you all the time in the world, but I can probably spare a day or two."

"The... others..." Ninya felt a stab of shame that he hadn't thought to ask about them. "A-are they...?"

"They were also killed, and then unfortunately turned undead, but they should be fine. There's a chance all of you will be a little weaker than you were before," Varena's information shocked Ninya even further. How could she say these things as if they were perfectly normal? "Now I must go, as I have urgent matters to attend to. Feel free to get more rest. I can't allow you to wander freely, but there will be maids outside of your door that will fetch anything you require, or escort you to the restroom. You need but ask. Farewell for now, Ninya-san. Think well on my offer, as you will get only one chance."

The door closed behind Varena, and Ninya was left with a jumbled mess of confusing thoughts. What had he stumbled into? Hopefully meeting the others would help sort some things out.

* * *

Ninya was the second to arrive in the meeting room. Peter was already there, sitting at a long table. Like Ninya, he was not wearing any of his gear, but instead simple (but well-made) white and brown clothes. It's what Ninya had been handed, and since Peter was the same, it was probably true of all of them.

Peter lit up. "Ninya!" He got up, and hurried over to Ninya to take his hands. "I'm so happy to see you well. I thought..."

Ninya smiled. "I'm happy to see you as well, Peter. Have you seen the others?" They both went to take a chair.

"No, I've only seen Varena-san, and those maids..." Peter said, lowering his voice a little. "I feel like there's something off about them, but I can't tell what."

Ninya had been led here by the one with the eyepatch who had been there after he woke up. There was definitely something strange about her, that much Ninya would agree as well. None of them were in the room with them, though. They were stationed outside of the doors.

The room had double doors at both ends. It resembled a fancy dining room, though larger than anything Ninya had seen before. Like something he imagined one might find in a castle, or palace. The three chandeliers sparkled as if crafted from precious gems, and even the upholstery on the chairs looked like finer cloth than anything he had ever worn.

And there was food on the table. Bread, and various fruits. Some of which Ninya hadn't seen before.

"So, you saw Varena-san too?" Ninya asked.

"Yeah, she-"

They were interrupted by the doors opening. It was Lukrut being escorted inside. He was eyeing the maids outside with a smirk, but they paid him no mind. But when he spotted his teammates, his expression changed dramatically. "Peter! Ninya!" He rushed over to them before they could get up. "So they weren't lying..." he said with amazement in his voice.

"Good to see you again, Lukrut," Peter said sincerely.

"Yeah, same," Lukrut said, and found a chair for himself. He grabbed an apple, since that was among the least suspicious fruits on display. The grapes and pears looked fine, but the long yellow ones, and the brown hairy ones were a different story. Who would want hairy fruit? "Where's the big guy?" Lukrut asked.

"We-"

As if on cue, the doors opened again, and Dyne stepped inside. It looked like he'd gotten the chance to trim his beard, and looked quite distinguished.

"My friends!" The relief on Dyne's face was so strong that Ninya worried he was melting.

They got up to greet him, and the doors closed, leaving the four of them all alone. They found seats, and arranged themselves around one end of the table.

"Did all of you meet Varena-san?" Dyne asked, and the other three nodded.

"She offered me a strange deal, and said to discuss it with all of you," Peter said, confirming what had happened to the rest of them as well.

"But are we sure that's Varena-san?" Lukrut asked. "She's a warrior, right? So why was she dressed like a...?"

"Caster?" Ninya finished the sentence that was left hanging. "I don't know."

"Maybe she has a twin sister?" Dyne suggested, though he didn't really sound like he believed it.

Peter was the one to shake his head, but all of them felt similarly. "She must be concealing her real identity. A caster who can bring the dead back to life... you would have thought we would have heard of someone like that?"

"I've heard rumours that they have ways to resurrect people down in the Slane Theocracy, but I don't know whether they're true," Ninya said.

"So you think Varena-san is with the Slane Theocracy?" Dyne asked.

Lukrut scratched his head. "I didn't really figure those guys for having so many beautiful maids."

"They are meant to have many powerful casters," Ninya said. "But I have a feeling this is something else."

"More importantly, have any of you learned anything about this place?" Peter asked.

They shook their heads.

"Varena-san deliberately wouldn't tell me anything," Ninya said. "Not unless I agreed to the deal."

"Same for me, then," Peter said, leaning back.

"The maids wouldn't tell me anything either," Lukrut said.

Ninya hadn't even tried asking them, but of course Lukrut had. Considering how Dyne and Peter nodded, they had clearly tried talking to them as well. Only Ninya hadn't. He felt a little awkward about that.

"Does anyone remember anything about being brought here?" Peter asked next.

Everyone shivered.

"I remember dying right after you, Peter," Lukrut said hesitantly, still having a hard time believing that.

"And I didn't last long after you two," Dyne said, his voice tinged with regret. "Next thing I knew I woke up here."

"I..." Fear welled up in Ninya again, but he pushed it away. "I don't remember... Varena-san said she removed the memories of how I died. That I wouldn't want that knowledge. All I have is this... intense fear."

Everyone seemed to have some idea what that might mean, and Dyne gave Ninya a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"So what should we do? Do we try to break out?" Lukrut asked.

Peter shook his head. "Without our gear, and not knowing anything of the layout of this place, I don't think we'd get far. And I have this feeling that even the maids could take us out..."

"I think you are right, Peter," Dyne said. "For now our best option may be to consider the deal."

"But did she offer us all the same deal?" Peter asked. "She said I could either go back to E-Rantel as if nothing had happened, or I could stay here, and she would train me, teach me, and make me stronger. But I'd have to follow her orders, and I wouldn't be allowed to leave this place without her permission."

"And she mentioned doing jobs for her," Ninya added. "And experiments, though I don't know what she meant by that..."

"Experiments?" Peter sounded confused.

Dyne nodded. "She told me the same. Maybe she forgot to say everything to everyone?"

"I... I asked her if she was God," Ninya admitted.

The other three looked at him.

"... And what did she say?" Dyne was the one to finally ask.

Ninya tried to remember the exact wording. "She giggled, and said 'some might call me that'."

"Eh? What does that even mean?" Lukrut sounded frustrated.

"It is quite vague..." Dyne commented. "But when she talked about the deal, it felt more like I was speaking to a demon. You know, the ones they say can grant you any wish in exchange for your soul?"

Ninya suddenly worried that he might have already signed his soul away by answering Varena's first question.

"I know what you mean," Peter said, and leaned back in his chair. He folded his arms before asking: "Has anyone made up their mind yet?"

Lukrut huffed. "I don't like it. Swearing fealty to someone... and even if we refuse, do you really believe she'll just let us go, with no strings attached?"

"She sounded sincere," Ninya said. With every fibre of his being he didn't think anything Varena had told him was a lie.

"I concur," Dyne said, which made Ninya feel a little better.

"I feel we would probably be safe to decline," Peter said, even if he didn't sound entirely sure. "She wouldn't have brought us back to life if she was just going to kill us for saying no. It would have been a lot easier to find someone still alive.

Lukrut couldn't really argue that, but he was still uneasy. "But why us? If she's really this strong, what would she want with someone of our level?"

"Maybe she's just nice?" Ninya suggested, but Lukrut didn't seem moved by that argument.

"It probably has more to do with these experiments she mentioned..." Dyne said, ever pragmatic. "Remember how much she asked us on the road?" All of them certainly did. "Wherever she's from, she seems eager to learn more about this area."

"Maybe she took a liking to us," Peter pondered. "She praised our teamwork after the fight with the goblins and the ogres, and it didn't sound like empty flattery. Maybe she saw some potential there?" That last part sounded a little hopeful. He wanted to believe he... _they_ had the potential to grow a lot stronger.

Lukrut sighed. There was so much they didn't know about this situation. "Does that mean you have all made up your minds?" he asked.

Ninya twiddled his thumbs. "I... I think I'd like to stay..." he said. It sounded dangerous, but even if he was signing away his soul, surely that belonged to Varena anyway, for bringing him back.

"I feel the same," Dyne said. "I don't think I could justify passing up an opportunity like this, no matter how risky it may be. Though if I understood her correctly, I wouldn't remember even if I did," he added with a bit of laughter.

"I would have supported you either way," Peter said with a smile. "I certainly couldn't leave you, whether we stayed or went back."

"Eesh..." Lukrut looked a little awkward. "Well, it's not like you would get very far without me, so I might as well stay too." He showed them a sly grin.

* * *

"So they accepted..." Ainz looked at Shizu, who had brought the message. "Thank you. You are excused." The maid bowed, and left again.

Ainz had hoped they would say yes, but she couldn't be sure. Unknown to the Swords of Darkness, she had actually tried different methods for bringing them back. If resurrection worked like in Yggdrasil, that meant it came with a loss of levels. The standard was five levels, but there were ways to mitigate that. She hadn't been cruel enough to revive any of them without any mitigating factors, but she had used the least on Lukrut, a bit more on Peter, even more again on Dyne, and then on Ninya she had tested an item that in the game negated all level loss. Maybe that was playing favourites.

Shizu had been helpful in reading their strength with high accuracy, so the estimation was that Lukrut and Peter had lost about the same: Roughly three levels worth. The extra efforts made on Peter didn't seem to have made much of a difference. On Dyne it had produced results, and the loss had been less than two levels. And on Ninya the item had worked as intended, and there was no detected loss. It was a valuable item, but it was also a valuable experiment. At least that was part of how she justified it to herself.

If they could find a way to reduce the level loss even more than they had with Dyne, maybe to just one level, without using any irreplaceable items, that would open up a lot of options. If they could eliminate it entirely...

Ainz removed her robe, and headed towards the bed. Where a certain demon was already standing by the side.

"Aren't you wasting too much effort on these humans, Ainz-sama?" Albedo asked in a tone that was clearly disapproving. Her feathers had positively bristled when Ainz had told her about this plan.

"Perhaps I am, Albedo. Perhaps I am," Ainz conceded. It wasn't like she could deny there was some selfishness involved here. "You're probably thinking I could have performed these experiments on someone more worthy, right?"

"I..." Albedo was clearly wavering between loyally obeying, and wanting to speak her mind.

"It's okay, Albedo. I've already told you I value your honesty, haven't I?" Ainz sat down on the bed, and pulled off her boots.

Albedo still seemed conflicted. "Yes," she finally said. "I don't believe humans are worthy of your resources. And to even give them rooms..." Her position that humans had no place in Nazarick outside of being prisoners had been clearly stated.

"You could be right," Ainz conceded again. "I have many justifications. Not wanting to risk someone valuable in case it didn't work. Seeing a potential I'd like to cultivate. Having to perform these experiments sooner or later anyway. Them having served me well, and deserving a reward. The stubborn rage of someone refusing to accept her plans got interrupted." She could probably think up more with relative ease, and she certainly had a bunch of plans for what she wanted to use them for. "But perhaps I merely have a flaw of being too kind. Maybe it will be the undoing of us all." She was only half-joking.

Albedo seemed quite uncomfortable now.

"Ah. Does it bother you that I'm so open about this? Maybe I'm burdening you unfairly." Ainz still worried that she was relying too much on Albedo. The demon was a loyal subordinate, not a friend. She was sure Albedo saw it that way even more than she did. But Ainz got lonely, and felt a need for someone to air her thoughts to. No matter how unfair it was to that person.

"Ainz-sama, I... I didn't mean to imply a Supreme Being like you is flawed in any way..." Albedo said, clearly struggling with her own feelings.

"Do not worry about it, Albedo. All is forgiven," Ainz said kindly, and flopped down onto bed. "Rather, I apologise for telling you all of these things." Maybe she should start keeping a diary instead. Writing all thoughts like these down might be a better option.

"Ainz-sama..." Albedo's tone was muted, but then she drew a deep breath. "No. If you need a confidant, then I shall strive to be one worthy of you, Ainz-sama."

Ainz looked up at her with a sly smile. "Are you sure? You still have a chance to reconsider. I will not go easy on you, even if you grow to hate me. There is no shame in backing down."

"I am sure. I could never hate you," Albedo stated.

Ainz chuckled, curious where Albedo's sudden confidence was coming from. "Well then..." she patted the bed. Speaking of relying on Albedo, she had gotten used to having the demon cuddling her to sleep. Even though she would spend more nights in the city now due to the Adventuring gig, she wanted to come back here occasionally. Albedo dropped her dress, and slid in.

"I have a difficult one for you already," Ainz said with a hint of remorse. "Do you think I'm doing a good job as a ruler?"

"Huh? I can think of no one more suited," Albedo said with no hesitation, as she spooned up against her master.

Ainz wished she was as sure. "I just keep thinking about all the mistakes I've made since we came here. The small ones, and the big ones. Worst of all, Shalltear..."

"You keep saying the important thing is to learn from our mistakes, and never make the same one twice," Albedo said, hugging herself tightly against Ainz. "I believe the same is true of you, Ainz-sama. You will find a way to work things out. If anything, it's our fault for not giving you sufficient intel to base your decisions on."

Ainz giggled. "You all give me too much credit. But you have a point that we don't know enough. Hopefully that will change soon. I'd love to be able to confidently go on the offensive, instead of just reacting defensively, or fumbling in the dark."

"I am certain it's only a matter of time until you crack this world open, and reveal all of its mysteries, Ainz-sama."

 _We shall see_ , Ainz thought as she drifted off to sleep. She'd love to believe it.

* * * [End Book 2]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is all entirely new on my part, and I suppose the first major change I'm making to things. Considering these characters are all dead in canon, I can do basically what I want with them. Which includes making Ninya trans. Because why not.  
> And I couldn't resist an Albedo scene at the end. I'm shameless.
> 
> Now the big question is whether I will do more books. Book 3 marks the first shift of taking the focus away from solely being on Ainz. It's still mostly Ainz, but it marks the start of what follows in books 4 and 5 (I have yet to read 6, but I assume it keeps it up there too), where Ainz is basically a background character in favour of focusing on what others are doing.  
> Changing things up is certainly a good tactic to keep things from being stale, but personally I find that when the focus is on someone not from Nazarick, I lose a lot of interest. I don't particularly care about how lizardman society works, and I care even less about Climb and his life and worries. Seeing more of Cocytus and Sebas were the highlights of those books.  
> Still, at least for book 3 I feel like I might have enough ideas to get it done. But I won't be uploading any of it here until I have the whole thing complete, assuming I upload it here at all.


End file.
